May 2022 – Page 6 – A Walk Through The Word

May 7, 2022

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday May 7, 2022 (NIV)

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21

The Birth of Samuel

1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim Zuphim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ²And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah and the name of the second was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³This man went up out of his city annually to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. And there the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord. ⁴When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters. ⁵But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb. ⁶Now her rival provoked her greatly, making her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. ⁷Thus it was yearly, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her. So Hannah wept and did not eat. ⁸Then said Elkanah her husband to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? And why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹So Hannah arose after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a seat by the door of the tabernacle of the Lord. ¹⁰And she was bitter, and prayed to the Lord, and wept severely. ¹¹So she made a vow and said, “O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant, and remember me and not forget Your maidservant, but will give to Your maidservant a baby boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”^[a]

¹²And as she was praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. ¹³Now Hannah was speaking in her heart. Her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine from you.”

¹⁵And Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrow. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. ¹⁶Do not consider your handmaid to be a sinful woman, for out of the abundance of my concern and provocation I have spoken until now.”

¹⁷Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your request that you have asked of Him.”

¹⁸And she said, “Let your handmaid find grace in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was not sad as before.

¹⁹They rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord. And they returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰And it came to pass that Hannah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Samuel saying, “Because I have asked him of the Lord.”

The Dedication of Samuel

²¹Then the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. ²²But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, “I will not go up until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and live there forever.”

²³So Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems good to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word.” So the woman remained, and nursed her son until she weaned him.

²⁴When she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bulls, one ephah^[b] of flour, and a bottle of wine. And she brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, though the boy was young. ²⁵Then they slaughtered a bull, and they brought the boy to Eli. ²⁶And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman that stood by you here praying to the Lord. ²⁷For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. ²⁸Therefore also I have let the Lord have him. As long as he lives he will be dedicated to the Lord.” And he worshipped the Lord there.

The Prayer of Hannah

2 Hannah prayed, saying:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord;
my horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth is bold against my enemies,
because I rejoice in Your salvation.

²“There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none besides You,
and there is no rock like our God.

³“Do not multiply proud speech,
nor let arrogance come out of your mouth,
for the Lord is the God of knowledge,
and by Him actions are examined.

⁴“The bows of the mighty are broken,
but those who stumbled are girded with strength.
⁵Those that were full have hired out themselves for bread,
and those that were hungry ceased to hunger.
Even the barren has borne seven,
and she that has many children wastes away.

⁶“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
⁷The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
He brings low and lifts up.
⁸He raises up the poor out of the dust
and lifts up the oppressed from the dunghill
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a throne of glory.

“For the pillars of the earth belong to the Lord,
and He has set the world upon them.
⁹He will guard the feet of His saints,
but the wicked will be silent in darkness.

“For by strength shall no man prevail.
¹⁰The adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces;
He will thunder against them out of heaven.
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

“He will give strength to His king
and exalt the horn of His anointed.”

¹¹Then Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the boy ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.

Wicked Sons of Eli

¹²Now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. ¹³The priest’s custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the flesh was cooking with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, and all that the fork brought up the priest took for himself. This they did in Shiloh to all the children of Israel who came there. ¹⁵Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast. For he will not take boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

¹⁶If any man said to him, “Let them first burn the fat and then take as much as you wish,” then he would answer him, “No, but you will give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force.”

¹⁷Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. For the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

God Blesses Hannah

¹⁸But Samuel ministered before the Lord, as a boy, wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹Now his mother would make him a little coat and brought it to him every year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “The Lord give you offspring from this woman for the sake of the request which was made to the Lord.” Then they would return to their home. ²¹The Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew before the Lord.

Footnotes:

1 Samuel 1:11 Hannah dedicates Samuel as a lifetime Nazirite (see Nu 6:2–21).
1 Samuel 1:24 Likely about 36 pounds, or 16 kilograms.

Modern English Version (MEV)

John 5:1-23

The Healing at the Pool

5 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ²Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, which in Hebrew is called Bethesda, having five porches. ³In these lay a great crowd of invalids, blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water. ⁴For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water. After the stirring of the water, whoever stepped in first was healed of whatever disease he had. ⁵A certain man was there who had an illness for thirty-eight years. ⁶When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he had been in that condition now a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

⁷The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred. But while I am coming, another steps down before me.”

⁸Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” ⁹Immediately the man was healed, took up his bed, and walked.

That day was the Sabbath. ¹⁰The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, “It is the Sabbath day. It is not lawful for you to carry your bed.”

¹¹He answered them, “He who healed me said to me, ‘Take up your bed and walk.’ ”

¹²So they asked him, “Who is the Man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?”

¹³Now the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in that place.

¹⁴Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have become whole. Sin no more lest something worse happens to you.” ¹⁵The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him.

¹⁶So the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to kill Him, because He had done these things on the Sabbath day. ¹⁷Jesus answered them, “My Father is working still, and I am working.” ¹⁸So the Jews sought even more to kill Him, because He not only had broken the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁹Then Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, likewise the Son does. ²⁰For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these so that you may marvel. ²¹For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. ²²The Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, ²³that all men should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

Modern English Version (MEV)

Psalm 105:37-45

³⁷Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
and no one among their tribes faltered.
³⁸Egypt was glad when they left,
for the fear of Israel fell upon them.

³⁹He spread a cloud for a covering,
and fire to give light in the night.
⁴⁰The people asked, and He brought quail,
and satisfied them with abundant bread of heaven.
⁴¹He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out;
they ran in the desert like a river.

⁴²For he recalled His holy promise
to Abraham His servant.
⁴³He brought forth His people with joy,
and His chosen ones with gladness,
⁴⁴and gave them the lands of the nations,
and they took possession of the fruitful labor of the people,
⁴⁵that they might observe His statutes
and keep His laws.

Praise the Lord!

Modern English Version (MEV)

Proverbs 14:28-29

²⁸In the multitude of people is a king’s honor,
but in the lack of people is the destruction of a prince.

²⁹He who is slow to wrath is of great understanding,
but he who is hasty of spirit exalts folly.

Modern English Version (MEV)

May 6, 2022

05/06/2022 DAB Transcript

Ruth 2:1-4:22, John 4:43-54, Psalms 105:16-36, Proverbs 14:26-27

Today is May 6^th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is awesome to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire. We find a place and let it go and let the Scriptures speak for themselves into our lives. Around this Global Campfire is on my favorite places to be in the world. And, so, let’s dive in for today. We finished the book of Judges yesterday and began the book of Ruth yesterday. We talked about the book of Ruth. Today we’ll read the rest of the story and complete the book of Ruth before moving ahead, and as confusing as it might be, moving ahead to meet the last judge of Israel as we move into the book of first Samuel tomorrow. But that’s tomorrow and we’re here now and we have the rest of the story of Ruth out in front of us. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week. Ruth, chapters to 3 and 4 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we concluded the book of Ruth today and it is a gorgeous story and such a story of hope and such an uplifting story in a season where we’ve been through all kinds of tragic stories in the Scriptures. But if we remember back to the beginning of the story it begins in a tragic sort of way. There’s famine in the land. Ruth and her husband and their sons leave and go to the land of Moab where they live for a decade and the sons grow up and so they get wives, Moabite wives, one of whom is Ruth, but everybody dies except for the ladies. The women remain alive Naomi, Orpah and Ruth. Naomi is in the depths. She’s overwhelmed with sadness. She is leaving a land that she has come to know, a land that she’s lived in for a decade to return back to her homeland now that the famine is over, but she’s going home a widow. She’s going home with nothing. And Orpah, one of the daughters-in-law goes back to Moab and disappears from the narrative. So, we don’t know what happened t her. But Ruth will not leave Naomi. She clings to Naomi. She says, “wherever you go I will go. Wherever you die will be buried. Your God will be my God, your people will be my people.” This is…this is a loyalty that gains a reputation quickly when they get back to their homeland in Israel. And, so, Ruth’s reputation is growing, and then she begins to do what is provided for in the Mosaic law. She goes into neighboring fields where she’s able to glean whatever is left over. She is a widow Naomi is a widow and widows are provided for after this fashion. But she catches the attention of Boaz and then we know, we just read the story. Turns out he’s a family redeemer and Naomi begins to see what’s going on here and what’s possible here for Ruth and she guides her through the process of allowing Boaz to know that she’s available, but she doesn’t have to give her dignity away to prove it. And, so, she ends up lying at the feet of Boaz, who wakes up and freaks out as anyone would, and, especially, there is a strange woman in my bed at my feet. That's…well…I don’t know what that feels like, but I think that would be weird. Boaz thought it was weird, but he also knew what it meant, and he begins to also counsel about what needs to happen. And as Naomi told Ruth, he’s not gonna rest until this matter is settled. And the matter is settled, and Ruth and Boaz are wed, and they have a child, a son, and they name him Obed and he brings great joy to a very bitter heart, the heart of Naomi. And Obed grows up and he is the grandfather of King David who we will meet soon enough. This story could have gone any number of ways. May we remember that this is happening at the time of the judges when there is no king in Israel and everybody does what was right in their own eyes. This story could have gone a number of ways. And Ruth could have had a very very different life and/or death being young and vital and foreign. But what we see is people going through hard times and holding on to their integrity, people going through disruption and hardship and being overwhelmed and grieving holding onto their character truly understanding what the message of the wilderness is, that they are utterly dependent upon God for everything. And they hold onto their integrity, and it is honored. May we take that lesson on board in our own lives because it’s a very, very gray world where anything is situational and we can justify anything and any shortcut, but integrity and character are things that are cultivated by the way that we handle disruption and handle grief and handle anger and handle misfortune. Most of the time our character and our integrity is revealed in the extremes of life. In the extreme hardship of life our character is going to be revealed, but also in the extreme abundance of life our character will be revealed. We see integrity and true character in the story of Ruth, and it was honorable to God and God blessed it. And the story changes here. This integrity and character is leading to a king of Israel. So, it is very very easy for us to think about the wrong choices that we make and where those roads are leading and how we don’t want to be on those roads but it’s worth considering where our integrity and our character are leading us because we are being led somewhere good, somewhere righteous. That is the path we want to be on. And, so, let’s give it some thought today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite you into that thought. Thank you for the story of Ruth. We thank you for what we can glean from it. We thank you that it causes us to consider our own integrity and where that is leading us and for what price we will sell it out. And we need to know these things. We need to strengthen these things. Make us people of integrity and character we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi, it’s Katie here from Nebraska. I wanted to give a shout out to Owen because I’m 18 as well and it’s pretty scary and you don’t know what you’re gonna do with your life. You don’t know how you’re going to manage college and everything else. It’s pretty scary to think about. And I just wanted to say God has a plan for you and I don’t want you to be afraid. I’m slowly learning that and I’m pretty stubborn. So, it’s been taking me awhile to figure out that I don’t get to rule what I get to do. And, yeah, I just wanted to tell you that. Bye.

This is Kathy from Kentucky. I have an issue that has gone all the way back to my childhood and that issue is shame. That has followed me for most of my life. I know that I had a hard time overcoming shame when I was going through treatment for my depression. So, also, I realized now that I stayed in a job for 20 years where I was not treated with respect at all. And because I don’t know if I just didn’t think I deserved better or what. But anyways I’m in recovery from drugs and alcohol year 30 years clean and sober. But shame follows a lot of us who are recovering from addiction. So, I ask your prayers for that. Thank you. Kathy from Kentucky.

Happy Monday DAB family this is Jason from Louisiana. Today is may the 2^nd. I’m catching up. I’m about a week behind and I’m calling today to encourage the lady who called on April 26^th, the very last person who spoke. Your son is named Josh, he’s 22 years old and he’s facing some legal issues. First, I want to say I am praying with you in agreement for favor and a miracle regarding this but I also want to encourage you that regardless of the outcome of this next few weeks in the courtroom it’s not the end of the world regardless of the outcome. I’m going to share my story. I was in a similar situation. At 26 I was arrested, and I was facing some really serious legal issues and we prayed for a miracle. Long story short the miracle for me ended up being sitting in prison for 3 ½ years and finally surrendering my heart fully to Christ after two years in prison. And, so, I’ve been out for over eight years now and serving the Lord loving life and I am who I am today because of what I’ve been through. So, I just want to encourage you with your son Josh that no matter the outcome of the next few weeks God is in control. I’m reminded of two scriptures today. Isaiah 55, his thoughts are not our thoughts his ways are not our ways. And also, Romans 8:28. You know in my situation and even your sons I believe this and I will speak this over him, that what the enemy may have meant for evil regarding your son Josh the Lord is going to and is turning it around and using it for good. So, you be encouraged today. God bless you.

Good day DAB family I wanted to reach out today 18-year-old just turned 18 and now facing adulthood. And you are amazing and just even calling and asking. And God will guide you. Stand firm. And even as we get older, we are all faced with challenges. And Susan God’s Yellow Flower, you touched me today for the words that I needed to hear. And maybe it is time I just stand on top of my pile and put the cross there as the only thing it’s doing is creating anxiety and not trusting God for my future. And I need prayers for that, to just let it go. Never been this way until this past couple of years and it’s just really hitting home. And I feel lost and alone. I know that’s not true. I have a hard time talking to people about this. And I know that God is there, but I feel alone. Maybe He’s carrying me now, but it just ask for prayers and it’s just Humbled in California. Thank you, DAB family.

Hello DAB family this is Terry the Trucker today calling in and I’ve got a prayer request and a praise report. for it. The prayer request is my brother-in-law James passed out at work the other day. They carried him to the local hospital, and then they transferred him over to a bigger hospital in Waco. And come to find out he’s got some kind of an infection in his lungs. He was…he had a rash for a long time and his local doctor was treating him with steroids. The local doctor overdid it and kept him on steroids so long that his immune system actually dropped to zero. He came down with pneumonia and passed out at work. Come to find out the infection that he’s got is highly contagious. They did an MRI. We’re waiting to find out if it’s done any damage to any other parts of his body, his brain, veins, organs. They say he could be in their hospital all the way up to December. It’s pretty serious. The CDC, the contagious disease center is working with the doctors to help treat him and figure out what to do but the infection is actually from soil, from dirt. He’s __ welder. Yeah, but as I said his body is exposed, covered with galvanized particles. But it’s pretty serious. I ask you to lift up James and my sister Tina…they…as they go through this. Thank you for your prayers. I want you to remember I always pray for you. God bless.

May 6, 2022

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday May 6, 2022 (NIV)

Ruth 2-4

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a man of prominence and means from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

²Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the field and glean among the heads of grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³So she went to glean in the field behind the harvesters. She happened to come to a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

⁵Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶So the servant who was in charge of his harvesters answered, “She is the young Moabitess woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather grain among the bundles behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has remained from morning until now, though she rested a little while in the house.”

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field and leave this one. Stay close to my young women. ⁹Keep your eyes on the field in which they reap and follow after them. I have commanded the men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should acknowledge me, a foreigner?”

¹¹Boaz answered and said to her, “I have been told all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to a people you did not know before. ¹²May the Lord reward your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here, and eat some bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.”

So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate and was full and had some left over. ¹⁵When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, “Let her glean even among the bundles, and do not harm her. ¹⁶Also pull out some grain for her from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean it, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah^[a] of barley. ¹⁸She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She drew it out and gave her what she had left, after she had been satisfied.

¹⁹Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.”

So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeeming relatives.”

²¹Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even told me, ‘You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²²Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go with his young women, for in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth’s Redemption

3 One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, why should I not find a home that will be good for you? ²Now is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you have been working? Tonight he winnows barley on the threshing floor. ³Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴When he lies down, notice the place where he is lying. Go in and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what you will do.”

⁵She said to her, “All that you say to me I will do.” ⁶So she went down to the threshing floor and did all that her mother-in-law had instructed.

⁷When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸At midnight, the man was startled and rolled over; and there, a woman was lying at his feet.

⁹He said, “Who are you?”

And she answered, “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread your cloak over me, for you are a redeeming kinsman.”

¹⁰He said, “May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last act of kindness to be greater than the first, because you have not pursued young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹So now, my daughter, do not worry. All that you ask me, I will do for you. All of my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. ¹²Now it is true that I am a redeeming kinsman. Yet there is another redeemer closer than I am. ¹³Stay here tonight, and in the morning if he wants to redeem you, very well. Let him do so. Yet if he does not want to redeem you, then I will redeem you. I will, as the Lord lives! Sleep here until morning.”

¹⁴So she lay at his feet until morning, but she arose before one could recognize another. Then he said, “It must not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵He said, “Bring me the shawl you have on you, and hold it.” So she held it, and he poured six measures of barley into it and placed it on her. Then she went into the city.

¹⁶When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi said, “How did it go, my daughter?”

Then she told her all that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷She said, “He gave me these six ephahs of barley, for he said to me, ‘Do not return to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ”

¹⁸Then Naomi said, “Wait here, my daughter, until you learn what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 So Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And now the redeemer of whom he had spoken passed by, and Boaz said, “Come over, friend, and sit here.” So he went over and sat down.

²Then Boaz took ten men from among the elders of the town and said, “Sit here.” So they sat down. ³He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, must sell the plot of land belonging to our brother Elimelek. ⁴I thought I should inform you and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so that I know, for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I am next after you.’ ”

So he said, “I will redeem it.”

⁵Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased, to perpetuate the name of the deceased through his inheritance.”

⁶The redeemer replied, “I am not able to redeem it for myself lest I ruin my own inheritance. Take my redemption rights for yourself, for I cannot do it.”

⁷(Now this was the custom in ancient times in Israel for redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, a man would remove his sandal and give it to his neighbor. This was a binding act in Israel.)

⁸Therefore the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself,” and he removed his sandal.

⁹Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have bought everything that belonged to Elimelek, Kilion, and Mahlon from Naomi. ¹⁰Moreover I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, in order to preserve the name of the deceased man for his inheritance, so that his name will not be cut off from among his brothers or from his town. You are witnesses this day.”

¹¹Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you do well in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem! ¹²May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

The Genealogy of David

¹³So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer. May he become famous in Israel! ¹⁵He will be a comfort for your soul and support you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her lap, and became his nurse. ¹⁷The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸Now these are the descendants of Perez:

Perez was the father of Hezron,

¹⁹Hezron the father of Ram,

Ram the father of Amminadab,

²⁰Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

Nahshon the father of Salmon,

²¹Salmon the father of Boaz,

Boaz the father of Obed,

²²Obed the father of Jesse,

and Jesse the father of David.

Footnotes:

Ruth 2:17 Likely about 30 pounds, or 13 kilograms.

Modern English Version (MEV)

John 4:43-54

The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son^(A)

⁴³After the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. ⁴⁴For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵Then, when He came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed Him, having seen all the things He did at Jerusalem at the feast. For they had also gone to the feast.

⁴⁶So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him, pleading that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

⁴⁸Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

⁴⁹The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.”

And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹While he was going down, his servants met him and told him, “Your son lives!” ⁵²When he inquired of them the hour when he began to heal, they answered, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

⁵³Then the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴This was the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee.

Cross references:

John 4:43 : Mt 8:5–13; Lk 7:1–10

Modern English Version (MEV)

Psalm 105:16-36

¹⁶Moreover He called for a famine upon the land;
He broke the whole supply of bread.
¹⁷He sent a man before them,
Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
¹⁸They hurt his feet with fetters;
his neck was put in an iron collar.
¹⁹Until the time that his word came to pass,
the word of the Lord tested him.
²⁰The king sent and released him;
the ruler of the people let him go free.
²¹He made Joseph lord of his house
and ruler of all his possessions,
²²to imprison his princes at Joseph’s pleasure
and to teach his elders wisdom.

²³Then Israel came into Egypt,
and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
²⁴The Lord increased His people greatly
and made them stronger than their enemies.
²⁵He turned their hearts to hate His people,
to deal cleverly with His servants.
²⁶He sent Moses, His servant,
and Aaron whom He had chosen.
²⁷They showed His signs among them
and wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸He sent darkness and made the land dark,
and Moses and Aaron did not rebel against His word.
²⁹He turned their waters into blood
and caused their fish to die.
³⁰Their land brought forth frogs in abundance,
even in the chambers of their kings.
³¹He spoke, and there came swarms of flies
and gnats in all their country.
³²He gave them hail for rain
and flaming lightning in their land.
³³He struck their vines and their fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴He spoke, and the locusts came,
and caterpillars without number,
³⁵that devoured all the vegetation in their land,
and ate all the fruit of their ground.
³⁶He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruits of all their strength.

Modern English Version (MEV)

Proverbs 14:26-27

²⁶In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence,
and His children will have a place of refuge.

²⁷The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
to depart from the snares of death.

Modern English Version (MEV)

May 6, 2022

5/5/2022 DAB Transcript

Judges 21:1- Ruth 1:22, John 4:4-42, Psalm 105:1-15, Proverbs 14:24-25

Today, is the 5th day of May, Cinco de Mayo. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian, it is great to be here with you today, as we move forward, every day, step-by-step, together, through the Bible. And so let’s dive in. We are moving into some new territory in a few minutes. So, we have been moving through the Book of Judges, which once again, is the time period between Joshua’s death and the end of his leadership and leading us all the way until Israel anoints it’s first king. And as we have born witness, it was a tumultuous time, where there was no king in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, as we’ve been told over and over in the Book of Judges. So, today, we will conclude the Book of Judges and then move forward, into the Book of Ruth and we’ll talk about the Book of Ruth before we begin it, in a few minutes. But first, Judges chapter 21.

Introduction to the Book of Ruth:

And that concludes the Book of Judges, which brings us to the opening of a new book. A Book of Ruth and Ruth isn’t a place that we’re gonna be able to camp out for that long, a couple of days and we’ll move through the short Book of Ruth. But it’s a beautiful story of loyalty and absolute trust in God through the lives of three major characters that are in the story, one of them, of course, being Ruth, another being her mother-in-law, Naomi, and the third being a man named Boaz. As it turns out, the faithfulness and loyalty to God and each other, of these people, brought about the circumstances that led to the birth of King David, and subsequently Jesus. This book shows us that when we are people of character, seeking wisdom, and making wise decisions, then the faithfulness of God hovers all around that. And after all that we’ve seen in the Book of Judges, the Book of Ruth really gives us a beautiful depiction of valent women of character. Nobody really knows exactly who wrote the Book of Ruth, there is Jewish tradition that talks about the Prophet Samuel writing it. Although biblical history scholars don’t necessarily think that’s possible. They think maybe, this was written after Samuel died in the time of King David. But the time period that we are referring to, in the Book of Ruth, refers to the time of the judges. And so, now let’s make this really confusing, at one time the Book of Ruth, was incorporated as a part of the Book of Judges and there was no Book of Ruth. But then, later on, it was separated as a story from the time of the judges, but not about a judge. And we were just talking about the prophet Samuel, who we didn’t meet in the book of Judges, but who was the final judge of Israel. We will meet Samuel, in depth, when we reach first and second Samuel. So, in the Book of Judges, we’ve seen some really beautiful things but we’ve seen some really, really trying, challenging, disruptive things as well. And so, the Book of Ruth comes like a breath of spring air, washing over the countryside, as we move forward in the story of the Bible and the story that the Bible is leading us into. So, let’s begin, Ruth chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word, we thank You for everything about it. We thank You for the way that it comforts us, guides us, illuminates our path, disrupts us, shakes us, shakes everything that can…can be shaken and encourages us to shake away all of the things that are holding us back or weighing us down. We thank You for the counsel of the Scriptures, we thank You for the lives that are found in the Scriptures and what they mean to us, not only as we study them and get to know them over time, but also for the stories that are represented and how they apply to our lives. And so, even as we move forward from the Book of Judges and into the Book of Ruth come, Holy Spirit, allow us to see what true character looks like. We pray this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, no matter where you are. Or there are a number of numbers that you can call: in the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number dial, if you are in the UK or Europe 44 2036 088078 is the number dial, and if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61 3 8820 5459 is the number to call.

And that’s it for today, I’m Brian, I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hi, this is Judy in Salt Lake City again. My daughter just called me and told me that her daughter, my granddaughter, lost her two boys to the state. Please pray, that my granddaughter can get her life together. She’s got mental health issues, like my daughter does and we adopted her oldest son, so. There’s no way that we can adopt the great grandkids too. And on top of that, my husband just had his daughter, from a teenage relationship, bake in his life and she’s dealing with a very aggressive breast cancer. So, if you guys would pray for Star, to get her life together, and get her boys back and for Jaime to be able to beat this cancer it would be really great.

Hi Daily Audio Bible family, this is Renzo in Florida. And I just want to pray for one of the DABers. Forgive me if I forgot your name, I think it’s Amy from Atlanta. But, Father God, I just pray for Amy from Atlanta and I pray for her son as he is dealing with bullying at school and how he has to take a certain test because of his autism and I just pray as he’s even going through puberty Father God, I pray for her son, Lord God. I pray that he’s just covered by the blood of Jesus. Let him just keep, walking with you God. Father God, I also pray for the bullying that he’s dealing with at school. Let the kid whose bullying him, let him to be born again, let him to stop having anger issues. Maybe, even if it’s your will Lord God, let them to become good friends, God, cause You can do the impossible, God. We just know that God, so just please rectify it, if it’s in Your will, Lord God. And we just thank You for everything that You do Lord. And, Jesus name we pray. Amen. God bless you guys, Jesus loves you, so do I. Bye.

Hi family, it’s Mykayla from Gloster. Here, it is Sunday, the 1st of May, it’s almost the end of Ramadan. Though, my 30 days of prayer is slightly on hold. The final few days will be coming, at some point, in the near future. So, I’ve got a full flat at the moment. Both my sisters are down for the long weekend, which is lovely. But yeah, disrupts the routine, but it’s really nice to have them. The reason why they felt the need to come down is not so nice. So, on Friday, my mum got diagnosed with breast cancer. And so, they both live in London, so they were actually able, so, that was a Friday. So, they were actually able to come down on Saturday cause it’s a three-day weekend. They’re able to stay until Monday. So, they feel as if, they can be here and help mum prepare for what she’s gonna have to, she’s gonna have chemo in less than 10 days, she’s gonna start that and then surgery. So yeah, helping with all of that’s involved, so it’s really nice to kind of share the worries and what we can do and to, all that sort of stuff. So, really value your prayers on that front. If you could pray for Debrah, my mum. Yeah, other than that, I’m not really sure how I’m doing cause yeah, but ultimately, I trust God. I knew this was a possibility that, she’d had test. And I think from that it was a, whatever happens, I trust you. Whatever happens, You’ll get us through. So, yeah, thanks family.

Hello DABers, this is K from Quanis, Ohio. This message, this prayer is for God’s Yellow Flower. I heard your heart, I felt you. Most importantly God heard you before you even uttered a word, He heard your heart and He caught every tear. Keep praying, keep trusting, God is still faithful in the midst of everything you’re going through. And what I heard, immediately, through your trauma, through your pain is that God is stretching you. He is stretching your faith. So, you’re gonna have to dig deep and rest in Him and abide in Him. The prayers that you prayed before when your husband died, that’s the same prayers that you need right now. So, rest in Him. He’s gonna cover you, He’s gonna keep you, He’s gonna give you the words to pray. So, that you can dig deep and get your heals, set them in the ground and stand, despite everything you’ve been blown. You’re gonna be like the Matrix, you’re just gonna dodge from side to side. And they’re gonna bounce off of you because you’re living what you’re preaching, what you’re saying. So, when you pray, pray and when you call back, you’re gonna have a praise report. So, all might not be well but you’re trusting God that all will be well and you’re speaking into existence as if it has already happened. So, stand and trust and know that God is God. And there’s no god above Him and that He can do all things. God Bless you.

Hey guys, this is JP from North Carolina. I’m a big fan of the Daily Audio Bible and this community. It’s just been like a lot of people say, such a blessing to me and my spiritual walk. I mean, you know, being in communion everyday with the word and with Brian and his family and all of you other DABers. It really does bring a sense of connection to the Lord through community. So, I mean, it’s just, I’m just so grateful. But the reason why I am you know, putting this little message in is, just to request in prayer for me and my wife. My wife and I just, we’re blessed by having, having our first little girl about four months ago. She’s four months old now, she’s healthy, everything’s great, we’re so blessed, we’re so grateful. But during this time, there’s been a lot of attack on my wife. And she’s going through, what we think is a pretty severe post-partum and she’s just being hit with just deep sadness every day and anxiety. And we’re in prayer, we’re in the word and the wilderness just continues. So, we just, request prayer from our fellow DABers and our family around the campfire to pray for her and for me, just to get through this and to remain faithful to the Lord and not to lose our…our faith in Him, through this hard time. Thank you, guys, so much. We continue to pray for the other people that we hear come up with their needs and we rejoice alongside you with your prayers, your praise reports. Okay, thanks guys.

May 5, 2022

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday May 5, 2022 (NIV)

Judges 21 - Ruth 1

Wives for the Benjamites

21 In Mizpah the men of Israel had taken an oath: “No one among us will give his daughter to a Benjamite as his wife.”

²So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They raised their voices and wept, sobbing loudly. ³They said, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today a tribe is missing from Israel?”

⁴In the morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁵The children of Israel said, “Who from all the tribes of Israel did not go up with the assembly to the Lord?” For they vowed a solemn oath regarding whoever did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah stating, “He must be killed.”

⁶The children of Israel lamented for Benjamin their brother, and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. ⁷What can we do to find wives for those who are left? For we swore by the Lord not to give them our daughters as wives.” ⁸So they said, “Is there anyone from among the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah?” Then they learned that no one from the camp of Jabesh Gilead had come to the assembly. ⁹When the people were counted, indeed, there was not a man there from among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead.

¹⁰So the assembly sent twelve thousand valorous men there and commanded them, “Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including women and children. ¹¹This is what you will do: You will kill every man and every woman who has slept with a man.” ¹²So among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³Then the whole assembly sent someone to speak to the Benjamites who were at Rimmon Rock, and they declared peace. ¹⁴So the Benjamites returned at that time, and they gave to them the women who were still alive from among the women of Jabesh Gilead. Yet they did not find enough for them.

¹⁵The people felt sorry for Benjamin, for the Lord had made a gap among the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶The elders of the assembly said, “What can we do to find wives for those who are left? The Benjamite women were destroyed.” ¹⁷They said, “There must be an inheritance for the remnant of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel. ¹⁸Yet we cannot give them our daughters for wives, for the children of Israel swore, ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ” ¹⁹They said, “Wait! There is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

²⁰So they commanded the Benjamites, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹Watch, and then when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, come out from the vineyards and have every man grab a wife for himself from among the daughters of Shiloh. Then go to the land of Benjamin. ²²When their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Be favorable to them for our sakes, because we did not take for each man a wife in the battle; for you have not given women to them at the time, thereby making yourselves guilty.’ ”

²³So the Benjamites did this. They carried away wives for each man from among the dancers that they caught. Then they returned to their inheritance, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them.

²⁴At that time, the children of Israel departed from there each man to his tribe and to his family. They went out from there to their own inheritance.

²⁵In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Naomi Loses

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ²The name of the man was Elimelek, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

³Now Elimelek, the husband of Naomi, died, so she was left alone with her two sons. ⁴They took Moabite wives for themselves; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years. ⁵Then Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

⁶So she got up with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in the land of Moab, she had heard that the Lord had visited His people by giving them food. ⁷She set out from the place where she had been, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to return to the land of Judah.

⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with your deceased husbands and with me. ⁹May the Lord grant that you each find rest in the house of another husband.”

Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept aloud. ¹⁰They said to her, “We will return with you to your people.”

¹¹But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there sons in my womb, who could become your husbands? ¹²Turn back, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me, that I could have a husband tonight and give birth to sons, ¹³would you wait until they were grown? Would you refrain from getting married? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”

¹⁴Then they raised their voices and wept aloud once more. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Return with her!”

¹⁶But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do thus to me, and worse, if anything but death separates you and me!” ¹⁸When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

¹⁹So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has brought great bitterness to me. ²¹I was full when I left, but the Lord has caused me to return empty. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has opposed me? The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me!”

²²So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law. They came to Bethlehem at the start of the spring barley harvest.

Modern English Version (MEV)

John 4:4-42

⁴Now it was necessary that He go through Samaria. ⁵So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being exhausted from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷A woman of Samaria came there to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

¹⁰Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹²Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock?”

¹³Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water that I shall give him will become in him a well of water springing up into eternal life.”

¹⁵The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷The woman answered, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband. So you have spoken truthfully.”

¹⁹The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you all say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.”

²¹Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. ²²You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. ²³Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. For the Father seeks such to worship Him. ²⁴God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

²⁵The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

²⁶Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

²⁷Then His disciples came. They marveled that He talked with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

²⁸The woman then left her water pot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, ²⁹“Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” ³⁰They went out of the city and came to Him.

³¹Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

³²But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

³³Therefore the disciples said one to another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

³⁴Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. ³⁵Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Listen! I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. ³⁶He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit that leads to eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. ³⁷For in this is the saying true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ ³⁸I sent you to reap a crop for which you did not labor. And you have benefited from their labor.”

³⁹Many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to remain with them. And He stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of His word.

⁴²They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this Man is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

Modern English Version (MEV)

Psalm 105:1-15

Psalm 105^(A)

¹Oh, give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name;
make known His deeds among the peoples.
²Sing unto Him, sing praises unto Him;
proclaim all His wondrous works.
³Glory in His holy name;
let the heart rejoice for those who seek the Lord.
⁴Seek the Lord and His strength;
seek His presence continuously.

⁵Remember His marvelous works that He has done;
His wonders and the judgments from His mouth,
⁶O offspring of Abraham, His servant,
O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
⁷He is the Lord our God;
His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸He remembers His covenant forever,
the word that He commanded, to a thousand generations,
⁹that covenant He made with Abraham,
and His oath to Isaac,
¹⁰and confirmed to Jacob as a decree,
and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
¹¹saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as the portion of your inheritance.”

¹²When they were but a few people in number,
indeed, very few, and strangers in it,
¹³when they went from one nation to another,
from one kingdom to another people,
¹⁴He did not permit anyone to do them wrong;
indeed, He reproved kings on their behalf,
¹⁵saying, “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do no harm to my prophets.”

Cross references:

Psalm 105:1 : 1Ch 16:8–22

Modern English Version (MEV)

Proverbs 14:24-25

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches,
but the foolishness of fools is folly.

²⁵A true witness delivers souls,
but a deceitful witness speaks lies.

Modern English Version (MEV)

May 4, 2022

05/04/2022 DAB Transcript

Judges 19:1-20:48, John 3:22-4:3, Psalms 104:24-35, Proverbs 14:22-23

Today is the 4^th day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it’s great to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. And that next step forward leads us back into the book of Judges. And we will actually be concluding the book of Judges tomorrow. But before we can do that, we have some hard territory that we need to move through. Judges, chapters 19 and 20 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Judges we have a profoundly troubling story that really pretty much from beginning to end is no good. And once again, the book of Judges is making us…at least giving us an understanding of why things are the way that they are. So often as we move through this book we hear things like, there was no king in Israel or at that time the people did what was right in their own eyes or a combination of both of those statements. And that’s how our reading today begins. “In those days when there was no king in Israel there was a certain Levite living as a resident foreigner.” We learned all about that Levite living as a resident foreigner who went back to Bethlehem to find his concubine and rekindle their relationship and bring her home and her father’s continual delaying and asking them to stay another day. And finally, the guy leaves. Finally, they do leave and they’re on their way back and they could go to Jerusalem and stay with the Jebusites. That’s the closest place to stay, but the guy is like we’re gonna stay where there are other Israelites. We’re gonna stay with our own countrymen. And we can understand that. You don’t want to go into a foreign city. And who knows what’s gonna happen in a foreign city. But man, what happened in city that’s related and of the same people is by far worse than anything that could’ve happened. It’s like the worst thing that could’ve happened. So, they go to the city of Gibeah, the mound or ruins where this place was exists until this day. It is definitely not a safe or easy place to get to and it’s kind of a contested place because during the tumultuous time of the establishment of modern Israel there have been some wars and there have been territories that were taken and this particular area is one of those territories. So, it’s kind of contested. There was a palace being built upon the mound at one time back in like the early 1960s I think if I remember right, or mid 60s and it’s just a hole…it’s just left there. I’ve been there to film it. It's…I mean when you understand kind of what happened there, and what resulted there it's…it’s pretty dark. So, the place is still there and we don’t have to go into every gory detail. What happens is this concubine who had fled back to her father’s house in Bethlehem is thrown out the door and raped the death. I mean…and that’s probably the mild way to say it because she was abused in every way you can imagine and left. And she dragged herself back to the door and dies on the porch basically. And when the guy gets up in the morning and is like, come on let’s go. And right there, you know, like even at that part in the story you’re just livid at this guy. Like, what is going on here? What…what is this story? Why is this in the bible? Like this is a horrible horrible story. But then we have to go back to the beginning of the story. In those days there was no king in Israel and that is what judges continually shows us. The centuries that followed Joshua were centuries of decline and God intervening with a judge just to restore some things, but it was an ever downward spiral. And, so, once again we read a story like this, get maybe a little bit antagonistic toward God like he wanted this to happen, and certainly put this in the Bible and so we’re supposed to be disrupted by this. And all kinds of things can happen to us until we realize that we are seeing a time where everybody is making their own choices and doing what they think is right and its tribal. And even the tribes are not knit together as one people anymore. And that’s what ends up resulting. I mean we have this grisly tale of the woman dying in Gibeah and being taken back to her homeland and being divided up into 12 parts so one part of her body could be sent to each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And that actually brought them together as one person. Tragedy has a way of doing that. And that brought them back together. And we could think…ahh…this is just that the way things went. But it’s not. 400,000 people came together at Mizpah. This is about as viral of the thing as that…as we see in the Bible because this wasn’t texted or live streamed or posted anywhere. This word just spread very quickly and it’s through the body parts basically that show up among the tribal leaders. And, so, they come together united against the Benjamite’s who are standing by the perpetrators of this evil. And the people of Israel, the 400,000 people, they are incensed about this as we are when we read it. They are incensed about this. They say, “nothing like this has ever happened in Israel before.” So, we can see now why that would be documented and why we would be able to read about it and glean from it and try to gain some understanding and perspective from the way that this story goes so that it doesn’t get repeated. And once again we see the Bible leaving the dirt in. Like it’s not glorifying these people or glorifying anything but the Lord. And the Lord is so often exasperated as He’s like…what is…how…what are you doing? All you have to do to find what you’re looking for is come home to me but you’ve got to have this knowledge of good and evil and you’ve got to make your own way and you’ve gotta turn to other false gods and you’ve gotta abandon me. And, so, this is leading to nowhere. And once again, we see a story that shows us, this leads nowhere. Ultimately this led to civil war. Ultimately this led to tens of thousands of people dying. Ultimately, this brought the near complete annihilation of one of the tribes of Israel. And as we move toward our conclusion of Judges, we’ll see that the people realize that and it brings a tremendous amount of grief as we will see as we continue our journey forward tomorrow. And one of the things that we can certainly learn from the story like this one is that it all matters. Nothing that we do is inconsequential. Meaningless decisions in this story end up adding up to the destruction of the tribe of Israel. Like, if they had just left in the morning instead of night that could have changed the entire destiny, that could have change, the whole story. Or what if, after this crime, this terrible evil that has absolutely brought the people to gather in their outrage. What if when they went down to Gibeah and confronted the Gibeahites and said, “deliver the perpetrators to us because we have to cleanse…they have to die.” What if they had turned over the criminals? Totally different story. And if we go back through this story, we can see that every little decision built its way into a pretty monumental outcome. It all matters, the things that we do, the things we do in the dark, the things that we do in the light. It’s all adding up to something. At bare minimum it’s adding up to what our life’ story is. And if there’s going to be no sovereign in our life, if there is no king in our heart at that time and we are doing whatever seems right in our own eyes than this story becomes a metaphor of the kinds of things that can happen when we choose to be our own Lord.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for everything that’s in your word. Our story today from the book of Judges is not necessarily a favorite that we keep coming back to because it brings comfort. It doesn’t do that it brings disruption. It shakes us up. Thank You for that because it shows us what we’re capable of becoming when we become something without You. And we don’t want any part of that. And, so, we surrender ourselves yet again falling to our knees, raising our hands in surrender, opening our hearts to You and asking Holy Spirit, come reveal the darkness reveal the places we should not allow to be a part of who we are anymore because they are only leading us astray. And if we are led fully astray there is no end to the evil that we can perpetrate. And we can see from stories like today just how low it can get. So, forgive us. We humble ourselves. We repent. We surrender. We ask You to lead us into all truth, and we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and now I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning this is Donna Longing to be God’s Delight in Pennsylvania and this morning is Friday April 29^th and I’m calling in to pray for Tammy from the Adirondacks. I heard…Tammy I heard your prayer this morning and that you are just spent, I believe, at the end of your own strength and you’re over thinking and feeling guilty. You’re your husband’s caretaker which is hard hard hard and you’ve survived ovarian cancer. That’s amazing! That…that was a tremendous taxing toll on your body and your mind and emotions in and of itself. So, now you’re feeling guilty that you can’t please God. And, oh my dear, I pray that God’s mercy would just wash over you and lift you up. Lord Jesus, please fill Tammy with the light of Your love that she would know that You are her dear daughter, that You do please her, that no she’s not perfect but she is perfected in You and that You love her and that she is doing Your will in pouring herself out for her husband. And it may not be pretty, and she may not always feel what she thinks she should feel, but I pray Lord that all of what she knows because she knows You would sink into her heart, that she would feel it deep down. Heal the pain of her mind and emotions and lift her up and lighten her soul and lift her burden. Give her help and those to surround her with Your love. In Jesus’ name I pray all these things. Amen.

Good morning, everybody it’s Susan from Canada Gods Yellow Flower calling, and I hear a lot of people mourning their mother’s passing and I want you to know how lucky you are to have a mother that you actually miss. My mother was not a loving mother. I loved her terribly and so did my sisters. We all looked after her faithfully while she was suffering from a stroke and in a nursing home but for years I mourned not having the mother that loved me. But I want to pray for moms right now. Lord God, I just…you know, parenting is a very difficult difficult sacrificial job and I pray for each mother represented here, that the love of Christ would shine through. Even with the tough discipline we sometimes have to give our children we pray that the love would always shine through. I pray for wisdom over each parent to know what to do in every circumstance. And let it all be done and love. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

This is Doctor John in Illinois. First, I want to thank the Hardin family for this wonderful podcast, this chance…this chance to share together our lives. And this is a message for Tammy of the Adirondacks. And I want to say to you sister, don’t quit. There’s this song I’ve been listening to recently and one of the lines in it says, kings feel it, beggars and thieves feel it. And I think what it is when you are afraid and you’re fearful and you’re wondering does God hear me. I promise you sister he does. And you say you study a word and you’re seeking God. So, all through the word everywhere is a love story to you to tell you that He sees you and He hears you and He knows your needs before you ask. Psalm 27:14 says, wait on the Lord. Be of good courage for He strengthens your heart. Hebrews 10:35 says, do not throw away this confident trust you have in the Lord. Remember the great reward it brings you. And patient endurance is what you need right now so that you will continue to do God’s will. And you will receive what He’s promised. So, I just want to encourage you sister that there are people listening and people in the same boat as you are and the same questions and the same hurts and the same wonders. But I’m saying to you don’t quit. Stay with us. Trust in God because He’s always faithful. God bless you sister.

Hi this is Donna from California and was listening to the community prayer line for this this past week and Holly Heart had called in a prayer toward the end, a little bit more toward the end and really resonated with me the…the things that you were talking about, staying in the hotel and seeing these people around you who struggle. And earlier this week I was up in Santa Monica CA which is a pretty wealthy city, very hi red district. I was up there helping my daughter and babysitting my granddaughter. And I was walking my little granddaughter around town in her stroller and there are a lot of…just so many homeless folks who live up there. They’re just…they’re part of the landscape really and came across this image I just have not been able to get out of my mind. And I know we see this, but it was this…early in the morning, rather early, and a gentleman was just hunched over a filthy trash bin and he himself was just…just so disheveled and he was just digging through it looking for something to eat. And I was reminded that when Jesus sat down at table with people and when He reached out to lepers He didn’t say hey…hey how did you get to this state? How did this happen? He just saw the person. He saw the person and that person is a human being in the image of God. And I just…something I’ve carried with me. More to say but just wanted to reach out about that.

Hey there, DAB. You don’t know me. I am a first-time caller and I think I’ve decided to go by the name His Daughter Dominique and I’m just calling to give a praise report. Today is May 1^st, 2022, and I have just finished listening to the recording of December 31^st, 2021 and I am just so happy and emotional because I did it. It’s such an answered prayer, something I’ve been wanting to do for so many years and so many excuses made throughout my life as to why I didn’t have enough time to go through the Bible and read His word. And I am just so thankful for…for the DAB production and the family and all the blessings that I’ve encountered through this app and this community. I want you guys to know that I’ve prayed for each and every one of you. And I just want to encourage those first time listeners or those who are struggling for feeling behind. There’s no such thing. There’s no such thing as being behind. OK? God is working through you. Every day you listen there’s a new blessing, there’s something to be learned, there’s something to be…to just be gained. You can only gain from this. And if you’re behind just keep going like Brian says, just take one step forward. That’s OK if you’re five months behind like I am because in the end you’ll get there. And I’m so happy and just so encouraged and I can’t wait for tomorrow because tomorrow I’ll be starting January 1^st, 2022. So, thank you. I’m praying for you all and I love you.

May 4, 2022

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Wednesday May 4, 2022 (NIV)

Judges 19-20

A Levite and His Concubine

19 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living as resident foreigner in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim. He took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah. ²Yet his concubine became angry with him and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for four months. ³Her husband got up and went after her in order to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. His servant and two donkeys were with him. When he came to her father’s house, the girl’s father saw him and was happy to meet with him. ⁴His father-in-law, the girl’s father, prevailed upon him to stay with him for three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there.

⁵On the fourth day they woke up early in the morning. He got ready to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen yourself with a little food, and then you can go.” ⁶So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please spend the night and let your heart be merry.” ⁷The man got up to go, but his father-in-law urged him until he turned back and spent the night there. ⁸He got up early in the morning on the fifth day to go. The girl’s father said, “Please, strengthen yourself and wait until later in the day.” So the two of them ate.

⁹Then the man got up to go: he, his concubine, and his servant. His father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! It is getting dark. Spend the night! Settle in and spend the night here, let your heart be merry. You can get up early tomorrow and go home.” ¹⁰Yet the man did not want to spend the night, so he got up and left and approached Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). Two saddled donkeys and his concubine were with him.

¹¹When they were near Jebus, it was getting very late. The servant said to his master, “Come, let us turn aside to this Jebusite city and spend the night in it.”

¹²His master said to him, “We must not turn aside to a city of foreigners, who are not children of Israel. We will continue on to Gibeah.” ¹³He said to his servant, “Come, let us go to one of these places. We will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.” ¹⁴They continued and went on. The sun went down when they were near Gibeah in Benjamin. ¹⁵So they turned aside there to go and spend the night in Gibeah. They went in and sat in the city square, but no one took them in to spend the night.

¹⁶Just then, an old man came in at evening time from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim and lived as a resident foreigner in Gibeah, but the townspeople were Benjamites. ¹⁷He looked up and saw the traveler in the city square. The old man said, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”

¹⁸He said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of the Lord. No one has taken me into his home. ¹⁹Yet there is enough straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me, your maidservant, and the young man who is with your servant. We do not lack anything.”

²⁰The old man said, “Do not worry. I will take care of whatever you need. Just do not spend the night in the city square.” ²¹So he brought him into his house and gave food to his donkeys. They washed their feet, ate, and drank.

²²While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, who were wicked men, surrounded the house and pounded on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him.”

²³The master of the house went out to them and said, “No, my brothers, do not commit this evil act, not after this man has come into my house. Do not commit this disgrace. ²⁴Here are my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine. Let me bring them out to you. Ravish them and do to them what you please. But do not commit this vile act against this man.”

²⁵The men were unwilling to listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them in the street. They knew her and abused her all night until morning. As the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶The woman came back at daybreak and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, lying there until it was light.

²⁷Her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house. He went out to go on his way, but there was the woman, his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸He said to her, “Get up, let us be going,” but there was no answer. So the man put her on a donkey and went home.

²⁹When he got home, he took a knife and seized his concubine, then cut her body into twelve pieces. Then he sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ³⁰Everyone who saw this said, “Nothing like this has been done or seen since the day the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt until today. Consider it, take counsel, and speak up!”

The Children of Israel Punish the Benjamites

20 All the children of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and also from the land of Gilead, went out and gathered together in an assembly as one man before the Lord at Mizpah. ²The leaders of all the people from all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in an assembly of the people of God, who numbered four hundred thousand infantrymen bearing swords. ³(The Benjamites heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, “Tell how this evil happened!”

⁴So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “My concubine and I came to Gibeah, in Benjamin, to spend the night. ⁵Then the leaders of Gibeah rose up against me. At night they surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead they ravished my concubine so that she died. ⁶I seized my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel, because they committed an infamous and disgraceful act in Israel. ⁷Now, all of you are children of Israel. Give your advice and counsel here.”

⁸All the people arose as one man and said, “Not a man among us will go to his tent, and no one will turn aside to his house. ⁹Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go against it by lot. ¹⁰We will take ten men out of every hundred, from every tribe of Israel, a hundred from every thousand, and a thousand from every ten thousand, to bring provisions for the troops. Then when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay them for all the evil that they committed in Israel.” ¹¹So all the men of Israel gathered at the city, united like one man.

¹²The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil that has been committed among you? ¹³Now hand over the wicked men in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and purge the evil from Israel.”

Yet the Benjamites were not willing to listen to their fellow children of Israel. ¹⁴The Benjamites gathered from their cities at Gibeah in order to go out and wage war against the children of Israel. ¹⁵That day, the Benjamites mustered twenty-six thousand armed men from the cities and seven hundred specially chosen men from Gibeah. ¹⁶Out of all these people there were seven hundred specially chosen men who were left-handed, all of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, gathered four hundred thousand armed men who drew the sword; all of them were men of war.

¹⁸The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked God, “Who should go up first to wage war against the Benjamites?”

The Lord said, “Judah first.”

¹⁹The children of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah. ²⁰The men of Israel went out for battle with Benjamin, and the men of Israel lined up for battle at Gibeah. ²¹Then the Benjamites came out from Gibeah and struck twenty-two thousand Israelite men down to the ground. ²²The people, the men of Israel, rallied and lined up for battle again in the place where they had lined up on the first day. ²³Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we advance and fight our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites again?”

The Lord said, “Advance against them.”

²⁴So the children of Israel advanced against the Benjamites for the second day. ²⁵And on the second day, the Benjamites went out from Gibeah to meet them and again struck eighteen thousand men down to the ground, every one of them armed.

²⁶Then all the children of Israel, all the people, went up to Bethel where they wept and sat before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. ²⁷The children of Israel asked the Lord (because the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, ²⁸and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it then), “Should we go out again to wage war with our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites, or should we not?”

The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

²⁹So Israel set an ambushing force around Gibeah. ³⁰The children of Israel went up against the Benjamites on the third day and lined up at Gibeah as before. ³¹The Benjamites went out to engage the people and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike the people down as before. On the main roads that go up to Bethel and Gibeah and in the field, they struck down about thirty children of Israel. ³²The Benjamites said, “They are struck down before us like at the beginning.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city toward the main roads.”

³³So all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and assumed their battle positions at Baal Tamar. Then the men of Israel in ambush charged out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah. ³⁴Ten thousand specially chosen men from all of Israel came against Gibeah. The battle was fierce, and the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them. ³⁵The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the children of Israel struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites, every one of them armed. ³⁶The Benjamites saw that they were defeated.

Now the men of Israel had withdrawn from Benjamin, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷So the ambushing force rushed on and attacked Gibeah. They struck down the whole city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸The men of Israel had made an agreement with the ambushing force that when they sent up a large amount of smoke from the city, ³⁹the children of Israel would turn around in battle.

When the Benjamites had begun to strike the children of Israel down, about thirty men, they said, “Surely they are struck down before us like at the beginning.” ⁴⁰Yet when the smoke began to rise up from the city in a column, the Benjamites looked behind them and suddenly noticed the whole city going up in smoke to the sky. ⁴¹Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were horrified because they saw that disaster had come on them. ⁴²So they fled from the men of Israel toward the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. Whoever came out of the cities destroyed them in their midst. ⁴³They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them without rest, and trampled them down near Gibeah toward the east. ⁴⁴Eighteen thousand men from Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor. ⁴⁵The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness to Rimmon Rock, and they cut down five thousand men on the main roads. They pursued them relentlessly until they reached Gidom and killed two thousand of them.

⁴⁶So the Benjamites who fell that day numbered twenty-five thousand, every one of them armed, valorous men. ⁴⁷However, six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock. They dwelled at Rimmon Rock for four months. ⁴⁸Yet the men of Israel turned back against the Benjamites and struck them with the edge of the sword—city inhabitants, animals, and everything that could be found. Indeed, they set on fire every city that could be found.

Modern English Version (MEV)

John 3:22-4:3

Jesus and John the Baptist

²²After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea. He remained with them there and baptized. ²³John also was baptizing in Aenon toward Salim, because much water was there. And people came and were baptized. ²⁴For John had not yet been put in prison. ²⁵Then a dispute arose between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about ceremonial cleansing. ²⁶They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, look, He is baptizing, and everyone is going to Him.”

²⁷John answered, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves bear witness of me, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but ‘I have been sent before Him.’ ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

He Who Comes From Heaven

³¹He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. ³²He bears witness of what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony. ³³He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. ³⁴For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without measure to Him. ³⁵The Father loves the Son, and has placed all things into His hand. ³⁶He who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

4 Now when the Lord learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John ²(though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.

Modern English Version (MEV)

Psalm 104:24-35

²⁴O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
With wisdom You have made them all;
the earth is full of Your creatures—
²⁵so is this great and wide sea,
which is full of innumerable creatures,
living animals both small and great.
²⁶There go the ships,
and there is Leviathan, which You have made to play in it.

²⁷These all wait upon You,
that You may give them their food in due season.
²⁸When You give it to them,
they gather it;
when You open Your hand,
they are filled with good food.
²⁹When You hide Your face,
they are troubled;
You take away their breath,
and they die and return to their dust.
³⁰When You send forth Your Spirit,
they are created,
and You renew the surface of the ground.

³¹May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in His works.
³²He looks on the earth, and it trembles;
He touches the mountains, and they smoke.

³³I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.
³⁴May my meditation be sweet to Him,
for I will be glad in the Lord.
³⁵Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
and let the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!

Praise the Lord!

Modern English Version (MEV)

Proverbs 14:22-23

²²Do they not err who devise evil?
But mercy and truth will be to those who devise good.

²³In all labor there is profit,
but mere talk leads only to poverty.

Modern English Version (MEV)

May 3, 2022

5/3/2022 DAB Transcript

Judges 17:1-18:31, John 3:1-21, Psalm 104:1-23, Proverbs 14:20-21

Today is the third day of May, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today as we continue the journey, the journey moving into this month, brand-new as it is, and the journey that we have been…been on since the 1st of January, the journey through the Bible, the journey through a year together and so let’s continue that journey. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week and we’re moving our way through the judges the Book of Judges, which tells us about the judges of Israel that follow Joshua’s leadership. Today, Judges chapters 17 and 18.

Commentary:

Okay so, in the Book of Judges, we have this, kind of odd story, about a man named Micah who, who has prominence and he ends up hiring a Levite to be his priest from Bethlehem. Then later, the Danites get mixed up into the story because they’re looking for land of their own. They’ve kind of been within the other tribes and they’re looking for land of their own and as their scouting for land, that’s when they come upon Micah and see his carved idols and his…his priest, the Levite from Bethlehem. And so, that’s one of the things that they scout out and see and then they go on to the city called Laish, and they see a group of Sidonia people who are living peaceably in a really, really beautiful area, but they’re undefended, they have no allies. If they were to be attacked, no one could get there in time to help defend them. They were just living peaceably, all by themselves and the tribe of Dan, made a decision to go and take that land. And so, they left to do exactly that and that’s when they come upon Micah again. They steel his carved idols, they take his Levitical priest from Bethlehem and kind of seduce him away by saying ‘you want to be this priest for this one household or do you want to be a priest for an entire tribe of Israel’, of course, the Levite wants to be the priest for the tribe of Israel. And so, the Danites make it to Laish, where they conquer the people and changed the city’s name from Laish to Dan. That place is still there, like the ruins of that place are still there. It is more toward the extreme northern part of what we now know as modern Israel but even in ancient Israel, once things are all established the territory is known from Dan to Beersheba. So, from Dan, in the north to Beersheba in the South. Today, we see where the city of Dan comes from and how it came to be.

Then, when we flip the page into the Gospel of John, we come to perhaps very, very, very likely, the most famous verse in all of the Bible, ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever shall believe in Him will not perish but have everlasting life’. And that very important verse, in the Gospel of John, really lays out a framework for God’s love for us and our response in believing and once we do, eternal life becomes a reality. What is like, not always apparent or always known about this most famous of all verses is that, Jesus said that verse. He said it while having a conversation in the cover, under the cover of night with a Pharisee named Nicodemus. So, by this time, in Jesus’ ministry, there is animosity going on, Jesus is not understood and there are people who are very against him and other people are plotting against Him. So, this Pharisee, Nicodemus comes to Jesus under the cloak of darkness to have this conversation because he sees what’s going on. In fact, everybody can see what’s going on, they just don’t know how to interpret it. They know that Jesus is drawing a crowd, they know that His words come with authority, and they know that signs and wonders are following what He is doing. And so, some people can say clearly this man is from God and other people say He gets His power from the devil so, that’s how divided the whole thing is. But it’s in this conversation, between Jesus and Nicodemus that this concept of being born again. comes from. And being born again, is like almost cliché for becoming a follower of Jesus, or converting to Christianity. But what Jesus is unpacking here is that, a person is born into the flesh, we are born into a human body, we are human beings of flesh, but there is a second birth of the Spirit, the awakening of this spirit, the reunification of the spirit with God, so that the separation isn’t there, so that God is within us or as the Scriptures say, it isn’t me who lives anymore, it’s Christ who lives within me. This spiritual awakening, this spiritual birth, if we want to use the term that Jesus is using, is what being born again is and it is explained in this verse; for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him, will not perish but have eternal life. Of course, Nicodemus is confused. Like, how does a person get born again, like how does a person, when they have become old, then get born again? Do they, how can they go back into their mother’s womb and be born again. That’s when Jesus explains, that we are born of the flesh and born of the spirit and we are born of the spirit, when we believe. And according to Jesus, when we believe, we are no longer condemned, but when we choose not to believe, we are experiencing condemnation already, which does make perfect sense, doesn’t it, because when we feel the most condemnation in our lives, is usually the time that we believe the least. Which gives us a glimpse of the fact that there really does seem to be a war within between darkness and light, clean and unclean, good and evil. And Jesus says as much, the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. In other words, their deeds were in the darkness so, they don’t want the light. For everyone, and I’m quoting Jesus again, “for everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed, be he who does the truth comes to the light that it may be revealed that his deeds have been done in God. So, yes, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and we who believe are not condemned anymore. But as we believe we have an inherited, we have inherited eternal life, which brings us into the light where there isn’t anything to hide anymore. So, the pertinent question for us then becomes well, what do I not want to be exposed to the light because that, whatever that is or whatever those things are, those things are actually pulling us toward and into the darkness. One of the beautiful things about the Gospel of Jesus and one of the really difficult things to live among other believers, is that the more we become like our Savior, the less there is to hide, the less there is to hide, the more truthful we can live, the more true that we can live, the more freedom that we can experience and yet we still choose darkness often. We still choose the darkness often, either out of fear of exposure or well-worn tired trails that we keep walking. God loved us enough to come for us and demonstrate for us what living in the truth, and in the light looks like and then going to Jerusalem and laying His life down to make this possible, for we who believe. So, why would we choose the darkness. Why do we choose the darkness? Maybe we know less about ourselves than we think we do, which means we know far less about God than we think that we do. But the one thing that we do know is that He loves us and desires our freedom. And if the gospel is correct, and the cross and its work is correct, then it’s all available to us. We are simply choosing otherwise.

Prayer:

So, Jesus, even thinking about that, even thinking about choosing otherwise, almost feels like it’s another slap in the face. But you haven’t come to keep condemnation upon us, You have come to continually encourage us forward and comfort us forward so that we can move toward the truth, move toward the light. And that is our desire, that is the desire of our heart, in a world of darkness, in a world full of dark people and a world where we’re battling it ourselves, within ourselves. We need the light more than ever, we need to be awake, and alert, and aware, and seeing more than ever. But we can’t open our eyes and we think it’s all up to us, and it’s all about us. Our eyes open in surrender. So, we surrender to You, we believe that You are changing and transforming us, in a world full of transformed people, living in the light is a transformed world and You have invited us to be a part of that story and it begins in our own hearts. So, come Holy Spirit, show us the things that lead us into darkness, show us the things that we do not want to be exposed. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

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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:

Good morning, my beautiful DAB family, this is Livy from Queensland in Australia. A few weeks ago, I prayed God would, from Psalm 51:10, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew my spirit within me. Well, it’s been a rough couple of weeks and my faith has been sorely tested. This morning as I prayed, God showed me to read a passage where Jesus is praying prior to the ascension, John 17:3, This is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and the one you sent - Jesus Christ. That’s it, to know Jesus and to know God. Well, with the light of a thousand suns spoke to me. My goal has been to read the Bible through and to read it again, through and through and through. And to get to know God and Jesus so that I might love them. I’ve struggled with doing what I think is right and what my faith in Him leads me to know what is right. I’m not going to do the things out of guilt. My goal is to do what I’m led to do with love because of love, the goal is love. May you all have a blessed day. Thank you so much Brian and the Hardin Family for this beautiful family, with the DAB community.

Good morning, everyone, this is Janelle in China. It is currently 6:57 on April 29th, I just listened to the April 28th recording and I wanted to call in response to the gentlemen who is celebrating his 18th birthday. I am praying for you; I am praying that the Lord will give you peace and discernment during this time. But I wanted to call and give you some unsolicited advice. That feeling of being totally unprepared, I’m sorry to tell you but that’s part of being an adult. Cause, I can’t tell you the number of times that that’s happened to me and what I’ve found is that it’s how you deal with that feeling and you respond to it which really defines how you are as an adult. There’s gonna be so many times where God will push you out of your comfort zone and He’s trying to grow you as a Christian. And this is one of those times, right now, I’m sorry but welcome to adulthood. There’s lots of joys as well as the anxieties, so focus on the now and trust God and He’ll get you through.

Hello DAB, this is Loyalan in Hohan in China. I’m calling because I listened to April 28th and I heard Owen, just had his 18th birthday. Doesn’t feel ready to be an adult. Dude, I feel ya, I just turned 27 recently and I still don’t feel like an adult a lot of the time. It’s hard, it’s hard to know what to do. But the good news is, even when I don’t feel like I know what to do and everything seems like a huge mess, God’s still there and He’s still taking care of it, even when I can’t see it or when you can’t see it. So, I’m definitely praying for you. In other news, I had posted on the Prayer Wall to pray for my friend Domin, who was really searching for God, having dreams. And praise report, he says he wants to become a Christian. It’s really amazing to just watch this unfolding. I don’t think that I helped very much but it’s not my job. So, thank you DAB for the Chinese that I could play for him. Thank you for praying, those of you who prayed. Praise God.

Good morning, Daily Audio Bible, this is Sharon in Southern California. I hope everyone is well and doing prosperously in the name of Jesus. I just heard a call from a young man named Owen. He just made 18 years old and he’s feeling anxious about being an adult. Owen, I just want to say, I think you calling the Daily Audio Bible was a very adult decision. You were asking for guidance; you were asking for God to be there for you and I am 56 years old and I do the same thing every day. So, Owen, I pray, my prayer for you is that the Lord will answer your prayer and help you, guide you through life’s ups and downs, you know, through happiness, joy, sadness, triumphs and obstacles, that is what He’s there for. I commend you for calling, I think that was wonderful. You made my day actually to know that there is still some young people out there seeking the Lord. So, I’m really happy for you. My prayer is that you find what you’re looking for. I pray that the Lord keep you in his protective care and loving arms always. In Jesus name. Amen.

Hey Owen, this is People on the Water from Indiana and I’m also 18 and in the last few weeks of my senior year. Looking into college and what it is being an adult. So, first of all, welcome to the club, it’s a good age. And there’s people around you, you’ve made it this far and you just trust that God does have your back. There is a good people around you, I just pray that God might give you eyes to see them. Alright, see ya.

Hello, Debbie DAB DABers, this is Trixaleena. I haven’t called in a while and I’m calling in cause I need prayer. I’ve been involved in my ministry for two years now and it’s been wonderful, just falling deeply in love with God, serving His people and finding people that love God as well, just spending time with them. But it turns out the pastor has not been paying rent on the houses, the ministry people have been living in. In exchange for work, they get free rent. We can house about 70 men that are coming out of prison, that are getting sober in their living. It’s the least of these that we serve in these houses. And it’s really sad to think about them losing their homes, is what it’s looking like. And so, if I may, please have prayer that may the Lord’s will be done in all of these men’s lives may the worlds, the Lord’s will be done in the path and where they go. And it’s obvious that it just, it got over the Pastor’s head and he didn’t know what to do and then it just got to the end. And I pray the Lord’s will be done over my path and where I go, I’m just kind of like, I don’t know where to go now. I don’t know what to do but I know that I follow the Lord and He has a plan. I know He has a plan; I don’t know what it is. But may the Lord’s will be done, in the name of Jesus. And I just pray peace, happiness, hope, joy are over all these people in this transition and thank ya’ll, ya’ll have a good day.

May 3, 2022

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday May 3, 2022 (NIV)

Judges 17-18

Micah’s Idols

17 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ²He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver^[a] that were taken from you, on which you put a curse, even speaking the curse in my ears—here is the silver with me. I took it.”

Then his mother said, “May the Lord bless my son!”

³Then he returned the eleven hundred silver coins to his mother. His mother said, “I certainly consecrated the silver to the Lord, for my son to make a carved idol and a metal idol, so now I return it to you.”

⁴When he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver^[b] and gave them to a silversmith to make a carved idol and a metal idol. And they were put in the house of Micah.

⁵This man Micah owned a shrine. He made an ephod and household idols, and he hired one of his sons to be a priest for him. ⁶In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his eyes.

⁷There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah. He was a Levite from Judah, and he stayed as a resident foreigner there. ⁸The man went from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. He came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to do his work.

⁹Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”

He said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I can find a place.”

¹⁰Micah said to him, “Live with me, and be a father and a priest for me. I will give you ten silver coins^[c] a year, a set of clothes, and food.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹The Levite decided to live with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. ¹²Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will do good for me, for I have a Levite to be my priest.”

The Danites Settle in Laish

18 In those days there was no king in Israel.

And in those days the tribe of the Danites was looking for an inheritance in which to live, for no territory had come into their possession among the tribes of Israel up to that time. ²So the children of Dan sent out from their families five valorous men from Zorah and Eshtaol in order to spy out and explore the land. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.”

They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they spent the night there. ³When they were at the house of Micah, they noticed the speech of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”

⁴He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, “He hired me, and I became his priest.”

⁵They said to him, “Please ask God if we may know whether our mission will be a success as we go to do it.”

⁶The priest said to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is watching the way you are going.”

⁷The five men went away and came to Laish. They saw the people who were there, living securely according to the culture of the Sidonians. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians and had no ties with anyone.

⁸When they came back to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What do you have to say?”

⁹They said, “Get up! Let us go up against them, for we have seen the land. It is very good. You are silent, but do not hesitate to go to take the land. ¹⁰When you go, you will come to a secure people and to an expansive land. For God has given it into your hands: a place where there is no lack of anything on the earth.”

¹¹So six hundred fully armed men set out from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹²They went up and set up camp in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. It is west of Kiriath Jearim. ¹³From there they passed the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴The five men who went to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that in these houses are an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a metal idol? Now think about what to do.” ¹⁵So they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, to the house of Micah, and greeted him. ¹⁶The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were the children of Dan, stood at the entrance to the gate. ¹⁷The five men who went to spy out the land went in and took the carved idol, ephod, household idols, and the metal idol. The priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men.

¹⁸When these men went into the house of Micah and took the carved idol, ephod, household idols, and the metal idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹They said to him, “Quiet! Put your hand over your mouth and go with us. Be a father and priest for us. Is it better to be a priest for one man’s house or for a tribe and a family in Israel?” ²⁰So the priest’s heart was glad. He took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image and went among the people. ²¹So they turned and left, putting the children, livestock, and valuables in front of them.

²²They had gone far from the house of Micah, but the neighbors of Micah assembled and caught up to the children of Dan. ²³They called out to the children of Dan. So they turned and said to Micah, “What is wrong that have you assembled together?”

²⁴He said, “You took the gods that I made, and the priest, and then you left. What do I have left? So what is this that you say to me, ‘What is wrong?’ ”

²⁵The children of Dan said to him, “Do not let us hear your voice again. Otherwise bitter men might meet you and you will forfeit your life and the lives of your family.” ²⁶So the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷They took what Micah had made and his priest, and came to Laish to a quiet and secure people. They struck them down with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. ²⁸There was no one to save them because the city was far from Sidon and had no contact with anyone. It was in the valley by Beth Rehob.

They rebuilt the city and lived there. ²⁹They called the city Dan, after their father Dan, who was born to Israel (Laish was the former name of the city). ³⁰The children of Dan set up the carved idol for themselves. Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the time of exile from the land. ³¹So they displayed Micah’s graven image that he had made, for the whole time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Footnotes:

Judges 17:2 About 28 pounds, or 13 kilograms.
Judges 17:4 About 5 pounds, or 2.3 kilograms.
Judges 17:10 About 4 ounces, or 115 grams.

Modern English Version (MEV)

John 3:1-21

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ²He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

³Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again,^[a] he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

⁵Jesus answered, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹Nicodemus said to Him, “How can this be?”

¹⁰Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, but you do not know these things? ¹¹Truly, truly I say to you, We speak of what We know and bear witness of what We have seen, but you do not receive Our testimony. ¹²If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended to heaven except He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven. ¹⁴Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but may have eternal life.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸He who believes in Him is not condemned. But he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹This is the verdict, that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹But he who does the truth comes to the light, that it may be revealed that his deeds have been done in God.”

Footnotes:

John 3:3 Or born from above.

Modern English Version (MEV)

Psalm 104:1-24

Psalm 104

¹Bless the Lord, O my soul!

O Lord my God, You are very great!
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
²covering Yourself with light as a garment,
who stretches out the heavens like a tent curtain,
³who lays the upper beams of His chambers on the waters above,
who makes the clouds His chariot,
who rides upon the wings of the wind,
⁴who makes His angels as winds,
His ministers a flaming fire.

⁵You laid the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
⁶You covered it with the deep as a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷At Your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of Your thunder they departed away.
⁸The mountains rose up;
the valleys went down
to the place that You appointed them.
⁹You set a boundary that they may not pass over,
that they may not again cover the earth.

¹⁰You send the springs to gush forth in the valleys,
which flow between the hills.
¹¹They give drink to every animal of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹²By them the birds of the heavens have their habitation;
they sing among the branches.
¹³You water the mountains from Your lofty chamber;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of Your works.
¹⁴You cause the grass to grow for the cattle
and plants for the cultivation of man,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
¹⁵and wine that makes glad the heart of man,
and oil that makes shine his face,
and bread that strengthens his heart.
¹⁶The trees of the Lord are well watered,
the cedars of Lebanon that He has planted,
¹⁷where the birds make their nests,
where the stork has its home in the fir trees.
¹⁸The high mountains are for the wild goats,
and the rocks a refuge for the badgers.

¹⁹He set the moon to mark the appointed seasons;
the sun knows its time for going down.
²⁰You make darkness, and it is night,
when all the animals of the forest go forth.
²¹The young lions roar after their prey
and seek their food from God.
²²When the sun arises, they gather themselves together
and lay down in their dens.
²³Man goes forth to his work
and to his labor until the evening.

²⁴O Lord, how manifold are Your works!
With wisdom You have made them all;
the earth is full of Your creatures—

Modern English Version (MEV)

Proverbs 14:20-21

²⁰The poor is hated even by his own neighbor,
but the rich has many friends.

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins,
but he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

Modern English Version (MEV)

May 2, 2022

05/02/2022 DAB Transcript

Judges 15:1-16:31, John 2:1-25, Psalms 103:1-22, Proverbs 14:17-19

Today is the 2^nd day of May welcome to the Daily Audio Bile I am Brian it is great to be here with you around the Global Campfire today together to take the next step forward as we get ourselves moved into this brand-new month in front of us. And that next step forward leads us back into the book of Judges, where we are meeting the judges of Israel, but in particular we’re getting to know about the judge named Samson. We’re reading from the Modern English Version this week. Judges, chapters 15 and 16 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have moved through the story of the judge Samson now which is a pretty famous Sunday school story as well. And one of the things that we should be getting loud and clear as we move through the book of Judges, especially, is that all of these people that rose up to lead Israel into freedom were very very flawed people. I think in this day and age we would look at any of them pretty much and say they aren’t fit for ministry or leadership. And yet they were. And yet they were empowered. And yet they did what God called them to do and lead His people back into freedom so that they could immediately turn around and go in the other direction back into bondage. And, so, we could say that’s one of the views that we get here, is that everybody is doing what is right in their own eyes. And what is right in their own eyes a lot of the time is not right in God’s eyes and is leading them into destruction. The other thing is just to see the humanity of these people. But in the case of Samson there was an announcement that he was going to be born, and that he would be a Nazarite and that he would free his people and that he should never drink alcoholic beverages and that he should never cut his hair. And, so, he was raised that way, raised to know these things, raised to know the power of his strength and where his strength had come from and what the purpose of his strength was. And instead, we see him giving away the secret of his strength to a prostitute who had been hired to betray him. Notice the humanness, the humanity here. The Bible doesn’t shy away from these things. We’ve had plenty of stories. And some of them are stories we’re like, man I which that wasn’t in here because it disrupts me, makes me think in ways that I don’t want to think. That’s how it’s supposed to be. The Bible leaves the flaws in because we are all experienced being flawed. Despite that God continues to work through people to get his purposes done. So, on the one hand, we should be extraordinarily grateful because that includes us. We’re broken and flawed. We don’t deserve to be doing anything in the name of God. Outside of Jesus we are nothing, but God still wants to use us and still loves us. And our brokenness can certainly break other people and cause brokenness around us, but our brokenness isn’t our place of residence. We are moving through this place, day by day step-by-step in a process called sanctification. We are moving away from that into fullness into wholeness. But as we see through the judges and for that matter through the entire Bible, God will work with a willing heart. And He came to make right the things that are broken .

Prayer:

Jesus, we thank You because we can look in judgment at the judges. We can look in judgment at our next-door neighbor. We can look at judgment at the person in the grocery store with us. We are all broken but we certainly like to point out each other’s brokenness and disassociate from our own. And yet You make beautiful things out of things that are broken, and You are making something beautiful out of us and there is hope for us as we surrender to You. And, so, we do. We surrender to You and Your service and ask that You might use us in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base like I say every day because every day there’s somebody new. And if that’s you, welcome dailyaudiobible.com is home base and it’s certainly where you find out what’s going on around here.

Check out the Community section. That is where to get plugged. That’s what the different links to social media channels that we participate in are and it’s also the home of the Prayer Wall. And the Prayer Wall is a resource for the community here around the Global Campfire that’s allows us to kind of tell our stories and allow brothers and sisters to read those stories and pray for us and let us know that they’re praying for us. It also gives us the opportunity to go in and kind of immerse ourselves in what’s going on in other people’s lives and pray for them and let them know that we’re praying for them. It’s a beautiful thing about the Daily Audio Bible is that we are all over the world really truly spread out to the far corners of the earth. And, so, we have no way of knowing every little nuance of everybody’s stories, you know enough so that we can judge them because we’re kind of judge-y people in general as human beings. We just accept each other where we’re at. We’re on a journey together. We’re moving through this. We’re being transformed. We see that the Scriptures are like transforming things inside of us and confronting things inside of us. And, so, there’s just an enormous amount of grace for one another as we move through the human journey and care for one another and commiserate with one another and pray for one another and intercede for one another and encourage one another. And the Prayer Wall is a wonderful place to do that. So, that is in the Community section at dailyaudiobible.com.

And if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, which you can…you could…you should be. You can download it free from wherever you get your apps, whatever’s connected to your device. Look for Daily Audio Bible and you’ll find it. And then you get to the Prayer Wall from within the app as well in the Community section. You just push the little Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and that opens up the drawer and in there you’ll find the Community section. So, yeah, be familiar with the Prayer Wall whether it’s something…I mean…it’s something that you go to every single day or whether you’re just aware and when things get a little sideways in life it’s good to know we’re not alone, day or night we’re not alone. We can reach out. So, check that out. It’s in the Community section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if what’s happening here brings life and good news and hope and comfort 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can at the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top 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:

Good morning this is Keith from Canada, and I was listening today 28^th of April and I heard the prayer request from Owen and my heart is just moved for you. Owen, I want to bless you into this next stage of your life. It’s so important in our lives to just know who we are and who we are in God and I am praying that for you today. 18 is just a number Owen. It’s not that a switch is flipped and you’re suddenly supposed to have everything figured out and be just confident in everything but I bless you two journey and to learn and to grow and to grow in the Lord, to know that He is with you and that He will take care of you. So, Owen, I bless you in Jesus’ name to become the man of God that He intends you to be one day at a time one step at a time. And I pray that he would raise up men and women around you that would give you godly council direction and support and that you would just be surrounded by good friends that could encourage you and help you to grow in the Lord.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible it’s Dr. Kanaya calling from London and I wanted to call to pray for the young man who just turned 18, happy birthday, and is worried about now becoming an adult. And I want to encourage you that even though we’ve entered this, you know, status of being an adult at 18 our Lord God still sees us as His children no matter what age we are and we can rest in Him and we can run to Him for comfort as we would our earthly fathers we can do the same with our heavenly Father. As you enter this new phase of your life, I pray that the Lord will equip you with wisdom and as you are heeding to His word, listening to His word every day you will find that this new season of adulthood will be a breeze for you. I really pray that He will order your steps and give you His peace in Jesus’ name. And honestly adulting isn’t that bad.

Good morning, dear DABbers this is Christopher AKA I’ll go buy Daredevil from Indy Indianapolis IN and I want to first of all just give a really sincere vote of thank you and confidence in our brother pastor Brian. What an amazing…an amazing incredible community the Lord has built here in the midst of all the chaos in this world. I praise you Lord God for this family the Hardin family and their faithfulness. I pray that you would reward them richly now and in heaven Lord. I also want to quickly share that I am praising God for the ways that my travel situations have worked out recently. Not long ago I posted on the app about…on the Prayer Wall about my need for travel mercies as a blind man living in a new area with more limited bus access and I just want to give praise for that, that I have been blessed. And lastly, I just want to pray for Liz from Louisiana. I am out of time on this message but know that you are being covered in prayer by me and many others for your upcoming board exam. The Lord will provide, and you will receive His favor.

Hey Daily Audio Bible this is New Eyes in Tennessee and I’m calling in for a young man who called in today. It’s April 27^th I believe…no it’s the 28^th and his name was Owen and he had just turned 18. And Owen I just want to say hi. I am a mom of a 19-year-old a 17-year-old or soon to be 17-year-old and a 13-year-old and I just want to let you know Owen that there is a huge community of people just like me who are praying for your generation, and we care about you guys so much. We care about your future we care about your destiny we care about your talents we care about how you’re going to get to where you need to be, all the things that you lay awake at night wondering about and all the dreams that you may have we are also praying for that. So, first of all I just want to pray against any fear that the enemy is sneaking into your brain about being an adult. I’m 45 years old. I still don’t know how the adult some days. I still wake up feeling like I’m 14. And, so, Owen first of all first of all I just want you to cast all your cares on Jesus for He cares for you and that you have a long life to live in Jesus and that He will take you on many adventures. My 19-year-old has already been to Hawaii, Uganda, and Mexico in six months, and he just had a blast and now he’s navigating how to have his first girlfriend. So, Owen I just know that you are gonna figure things out, that God is on your side and there’s so many of us praying for your generation. Be blessed Owen. You’re awesome. Child of God.

I just heard a prayer request from a young man named Owen. Owen, you said that you just turned 18 years old and you’re not so sure that you’re ready for adulthood. Well let me tell you I’m almost 60 and I don’t know that I’m ready for adulthood either. But you are one step ahead of the game young man. Most men your age wouldn’t even think to reach out for prayer. And there’s a verse in the Bible, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight. Let me tell you, you are way ahead of the game, and I am so proud of you for having the courage to call and ask for prayer. And you will be successful. I will be praying for you every day as I know all the other members of this community will be praying for you as well. You take care and give us an update OK. Bye-bye.

1 Samuel 1:1-2:21

The Birth of Samuel

The Dedication of Samuel

The Prayer of Hannah

Wicked Sons of Eli

God Blesses Hannah

Footnotes:

John 5:1-23

The Healing at the Pool

The Authority of the Son

Psalm 105:37-45

Proverbs 14:28-29

Ruth 2-4

Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth’s Redemption

Boaz Marries Ruth

The Genealogy of David

Footnotes:

John 4:43-54

The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son(A)

Cross references:

Psalm 105:16-36

Proverbs 14:26-27

Judges 21 - Ruth 1

Wives for the Benjamites

Naomi Loses

John 4:4-42

Psalm 105:1-15

Psalm 105(A)

Cross references:

Proverbs 14:24-25

Judges 19-20

A Levite and His Concubine

The Children of Israel Punish the Benjamites

John 3:22-4:3

Jesus and John the Baptist

He Who Comes From Heaven

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

Psalm 104:24-35

Proverbs 14:22-23

Judges 17-18

Micah’s Idols

The Danites Settle in Laish

Footnotes:

John 3:1-21

Jesus and Nicodemus

Footnotes:

Psalm 104:1-24

Psalm 104

Proverbs 14:20-21

The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son^(A)

Psalm 105^(A)