Genesis 26:17-27:46, Matthew 9:1-17, Psalm 10:16-18, Proverbs 3:9-10
Today is the 12th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it’s a joy to be here with you today. I can’t think of a better place to be than together here with you taking the next step forward in the Scriptures. So, yesterday in the book of Genesis we reached a conclusion of Abraham’s life and we were told that he was buried in the same cave that his wife Sarah had been buried in, the Cave of Machpelah, which is near the city of Hebron. And I mentioned that that cave, that’s a real place. It’s known as the tomb of the patriarchs at this point and the structure that is over the top of it is quite old. It was built by King Herod around the time of Jesus life and ministry. Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac has gotten married, his wife is Rebecca, they have had twin sons Esau and Jacob. So now Abraham, Isaac and Jacob have all entered the story. Isaac and Rebekah are living near a city called Harar. Jacob lied to King Abimelech that Rebecca was his sister and not his wife and that’s gotten discovered and so, King Abimelech isn’t so happy about the deception and would like to see them move on. And that’s where we’ll pick up the story, Genesis chapter 26 verse 17 through 27 verse 46.
Commentary:
Okay so, yesterday in the book of Genesis we’re talking about how Isaac and Rebecca were living near the city of Harar with King Abimelech and how Jacob had done the same thing his father Abraham had done by saying that his wife was actually his sister and I I pointed that out, simply to observe the fact that trickery was part of that family’s story and I mentioned that we weren’t done seeing that and we see it again today. Isaac has reached the end of his life. So, you can see we’re moving through time rather rapidly and it was time for Isaac to bestow the fatherly blessing upon his firstborn and transfer the family resources and wealth but also responsibility onto his firstborn son Esau. Rebecca was listening to all this and once Esau was gone on the hunt, she got Jacob together and they tricked Isaac and Isaac blessed Jacob, which made Esau so mad when he discovered it that the way he consoled himself while he’s waiting for his father to pass on was to plot how he’s going to kill Jacob. And so, Rebecca got him out of there and told him to flee to her brother Laban. Now, we’ve already met Laban. We remember after Sarah died that Abraham sent his servant to go back to the family and the family region and find a wife for Isaac which is how we met Rebecca and Rebecca’s brother, Laban. So, now Rebecca has Jacob and Esau. So, Laban is Jacob’s uncle and she’s telling her son Jacob to go to his uncle to avoid being killed by his brother Esau. So, it’s obviously a pretty stressful time as we go forward, we will follow Jacob all the way to the land of Rebecca’s family and back to Laban where Jacob has some trickery of his own to deal with and we’ll see that in the coming days.
Now, in the book of Matthew today we see a fundamental thing that Jesus gets accused of, later on it will be this accusation that Jesus will be convicted of which will justify, in the mind of the Jewish religious leaders, the execution of Jesus. So, as the story goes Jesus returns by boat to the Northwest shores of the Sea of Galilee which is where the vast majority of his ministry took place and to Capernaum, which was his adult hometown during his ministry. Some men brought a paralyzed man carrying him on a stretcher to Jesus and Jesus said, have courage son, your sins are forgiven, and for the religious leaders hearing this, that is a big problem. In their religious tradition and understanding, only God can forgive sins. So, for Jesus to tell this paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven, that is Jesus elevating himself to the place of God. In the Hebrew tradition elevating anything to the status of God that is not God is blasphemy. Jesus can see what’s going on and so He’s like a what’s easier for me to say your sins are forgiven or get up and walk and to demonstrate his authority He tells the guy get up, pick up your stretcher, go home. And then, according to Matthew and I quote “when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck and gave glory to God who had given such authority to men” and that pretty much describes the tension. The religious leaders watching this look at Jesus and say this is clearly a human being, this is clearly a man who is claiming to forgive sins, that’s blasphemy. But then the person is healed. This paralyzed man is healed, miraculously. So, there’s only two ways this can work one: Jesus is a fraud and a blasphemer who somehow through miracle or trickery has made it appear that this person has been healed or this person has actually been healed. So, if he’s a blasphemer, where did this power and authority come from? On the other hand, the alternative is to believe that Jesus in fact does have the authority to forgive sins and he is not blaspheming because he is God and has every right to elevate himself to the authority that he already has. Most of the religious leaders stuck with the first story, Jesus is a blasphemer but where does he get his power and we’ll see as we continue forward that they begin to say Jesus gets His power because He’s clearly a blasphemer, He gets his power from the devil, which ironically is actually blasphemy because they are attributing to the evil one, the power to heal, through Jesus, who is God. This is in no way the last time we’re gonna see this kind of exchange or this kind of accusation. So, for us to be aware, like this is really the problem, this is really the rift. There are also other things going on like envy and jealousy and fear of the Romans, all kinds of stuff are going on, but really, really gets the religious establishment hard against Jesus is their assertion that he is a blasphemer. Knowing that will help us understand the tension as we continue forward.
Prayer:
So, father, we thank You yet again as we will continue to do repetitively, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for the Scriptures, we thank You for each other, we thank You that we live in a time where there is a technology like this where we can, no matter where we are on this planet, we can come together in community and feast on the Scriptures, we thank You for what You have begun to reveal to us. We anticipate all that You have to reveal to us through the Scriptures this year and with open hearts we worship You, we adore You, we love You, we humble ourselves before You and I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, that’s a, yeah, that the website, that’s where you find what’s going on around here. You can also do that using the Daily Audio Bible app, which is available free from whatever app store you get your applications at, so check that out. Check out the Community section, either in the app or on the web. The Community section has different links for where to get connected in any way that you want to or can but it is also the home of the Prayer Wall and the Prayer Wall is always available, always on, never off, always being used. If it’s the middle of the night and you can’t sleep in the anxiety has your stomach twisting in knots and you’re tossing and you’re turning and you’re getting up to use the bathroom and get a glass of water and then trying to lay back down and see if you can’t get enough hours to get you through the next day. If you can’t sleep, there’s a place to go and just share a little bit of your story and ask your brothers and sisters around the world to pray for you and they will. Or maybe it’s the right time when we’re feeling that way to get our mind a little bit off of some of the pressures and challenges that we’re facing and face outward and begin to realize we’re not the only one struggling, everybody is struggling in some sort of way. We just curate our lives on social media and in public to make it look like we’re killing it, we’re doing great. It’s awesome, everything is perfect and everybody faces challenge, everybody has struggles and the Prayer Wall is a place of solidarity really, it’s a place to realize yeah, I’m going through stuff but I’m not the only one going through stuff and to reach out in prayer for one another and be that word of grace or love, or compassion, or simple prayer to somebody else in their trials, well that’s like the body of Christ and that is something that we do very well here. So, be familiar with the Prayer Wall and use it.
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hey DABers, it’s Kira Contrite Spirit and I’m excited today, listening to the reading about Sarah and Abraham. I have, I can, I can relate to this story, it’s touched me in a different way. It’s quite, my situation is different. In my life there was another woman when I was pregnant with my son, Nish, his dad got together with another woman and they had a baby six month after mine, after hours so he has a brother that six months younger. And I was crushed, we had been together five years and it was our child, our first child. And I had basically given my heart to him, we had not been married but I was so devastated. And then led me into a life of lust and looking and searching. We tried even, I didn’t know what to do, I was so young so we lived together and it was horrible, the jealousy and we all lived, it was a like two wife situation. It was incredibly, incredibly difficult. And when my son was 4, I left, I took off. I took him away from his dad and from the family, from his siblings. The other women had another child by then and it, so. And it just led to a life of gosh, sin and destruction and drugs. And now my son is in this situation that he’s in. But I’m holding on to the promise that God gives us for abundant lives. And it just gives me hope. Thank you.
Hey family, this is Demetri calling from Portland, Oregon. Happy New Year to everybody and wanted to just call and just welcome all of our new listeners. This is my six or seventh, seventh year going through the Bible and it’s a amazing experience every single time. For those who are just starting I just encourage you to stay through and not give up. You will be changed; you will be thankful for this experience and if you’re amongst some of us are a every year listener you will not regret it. It’s changed my life in many ways and I wouldn’t be where I’m at without it. So, thank you Brian for this amazing platform. Just wanted to also call in, this year, I have a feeling this year is gonna be amazing. I’ve called in the past and asked you guys to pray for my marriage and my ex-wife. And I feel, I feel very good about this year. I feel like, God has plans for restoration or something along those lines so I’m continuing to pray for that. I think God has something amazing in store for us this year in many different ways. So, I’m looking forward to seeing what that is. Just asking the whole family to pray, pray for my ex-wife, for her, for God to reveal Himself to her and show her who He is the way He has done to me and I’ll be looking forward to sharing more of my experience and what’s been going on until then. Thank you, guys, God Bless. Thank you everybody for praying, I listen every day and praying for everybody as well. God Bless and have a great day. Bye.
Greetings, Daily Audio Bible family this is Drew from Southern California. I got a praise report to offer up one that involves prayer and God’s word and it actually interestingly, coincides with today’s reading. My wife came down with a very severe case of stress and it was triggered by some financial circumstances that we’ve encountered and it caused her to be in a great state of worry. Actually, she was in a worried state prior to this, but it just escalated as a result, she had deprived herself of sleep and nourishment and eating and things like that. And it really got into an exceptionally bad state as you can imagine. We were in prayer. We had a lot of prayer warriors praying on her behalf, and she has been miraculously restored and I think that is a testament to faithfulness to prayer, principally and to our God in heaven, but I just wanted to recount the phrase that we read in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 25 therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life with worry, what you will eat or what you will drink or about your body and what you will put on. It was fascinating to me that she was excessively worried about eating and what she was going to wear and that was an incredible intersection with what God has told us not to do so thank you again everyone who has helped me in prayer. And I just offer this as encouragement that we could conform our lives to God’s will and it goes well. Blessings everyone. Bye.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Dr. Maurine from Alexandria, Virginia. I just wanted to wish each and every one of you a very blessed 2022. It is so good to be a part of this wonderful family of God from all over the world. Let me just pray for each one of you that call in and leave your prayer requests and your joys and your breakthroughs. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for my sisters and brothers all over the world, all over this great nation, America. I pray that 2022 will be a wonderful year for each one of us, Lord God. I pray that Your blessing will be in the form of peace and prosperity. I pray for Brian, that you will continue to give him the strength that he needs in order to read the word to us. Father, thank You so much for this wonderful place that we can each come together, as a family. Lord, thank You, thank You so much in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is Lindsay in Minnesota. I apologize, I’m out on a walk so I might sound a little out of breath. But I am a few days behind so it’s January 8th and I just finished listening to the January 5th segment and I really had it on my heart to call in and just let Bongere from India know that I hear you and I am right there with you and I am praying for you. I know what it’s like to feel alone and to feel depressed and to wonder if your life is really worth living. But I just want to tell you that it is and that you are so loved and that Jesus values your life. He loves you as a son and you have a purpose here. And so, I’m just lifting you up in prayer today that you would feel comforted, that you would feel loved and that you would feel re-energized. In Jesus name. Amen.