Lamentations 1:1-2:22, Philemon 1:1-25, Psalms 101:1-8, Proverbs
26:20
Today is the 29th day of October, welcome to the Daily
Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you as we take the next
step forward together all around the Global Campfire here. We have totally new
territory to move into today, both in the old and the new Testaments. So, we
have some ground cover. This is one of the rare days on our journey through the
Scriptures where we come to brand-new books or letters in old and New Testament
on the same day. So, as we move into the Old Testament portion of our reading today
we will remember that we concluded the book of Jeremiah yesterday, which leads
us now into the book of Lamentations
Introduction to Lamentations:
And to kind of get ourselves into the right mindset here let’s
just consider that whatever nation that we live in. Like one of the major cities…think
about your capital city, a major city in the land that you live in. So, here in
the United States there are a bunch of big cities that have millions of people
in them. Think of anyone of them and think that it is destroyed. Like not some
buildings, but like the city is destroyed and the survivors are fleeing and
confused, and nobody knows what to do. Imagine that. But we can bring it more
immediate and just consider wars that are occurring on the earth today and
people whose homes have been destroyed and lives have been torn apart. And like
we can see on the news what it looks like for blocks and blocks of a city to
just be leveled. Think about the aftermath of that, the years on down the line and
the way that what happened is processed through the eyes of a historian, but
also processed through the eyes of the artist. Like I can remember when I was
kid there was this song. I cannot remember how…I think we probably…in
elementary school we studied it or something because it was like an oldie when
I was a kid. But it was a song about the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald and
that this was a boat, a big ship that sank in Lake Superior up in Michigan
waters. And that was a tragedy, and the crew was lost, but as things
reverberated into history, right? And there’s this song and like the artist
community speaks forth. And, so, there’s this song that holds this whole story
together of tragedy and loss. The book of Lamentations that we are moving into
now is a book composed of five poems. And they’re sad abundance of lament. They’re
lamenting over the fall and destruction of Jerusalem, a city, a city that was
the icon of a people, a representative of the people and their identity, a
capital city destroyed. And we have read about that destruction. In fact, even
as we concluded the book of Jeremiah we’re reading about the destruction, the
Babylonian invasion and the capture and destruction of the city of Jerusalem
and the carrying off of the people into exile. And the more you think about it
and put yourself in the position of the Jewish people then you realize just how
deep of a thing this is. This isn’t the destruction of a suburb. This is the
destruction of the capital city. This is the destruction of the Temple of the
most-high God. The city is on fire. Everything seems gray and overcast because
of the ash in the air. Dead bodies are strewn everywhere. Blood is on the walls
and running down the streets. In the Hebrew. this book Lamentations is called Icah.
And this word means how. Like, how? How could this happen? Through the other
scriptures that we read we know that it happened, and we know how it happened. And
technically speaking Babylonian’s finally broke through the wall of Jerusalem and
flooded into the city and destroyed it. And there is archaeological evidence of
the conquest of the Babylonians that can be found in Jerusalem still until
today. How the people got into this position spiritually, how this could happen
is so much of what we’ve read in the prophecies of Jeremiah. Jeremiah warned
people for decades that this…that this was coming, that impending doom would
eventually arrive if they didn’t turn from their wickedness. And now as we turn
the page out of Jeremiah and into Lamentations it happened. The prophecies came
true. It happened. Though, how could this happen. Like, how do you put words to
that? The book of limitations doesn’t tell us who wrote the book of
Lamentations, at least inside the text. The tradition is that Jeremiah wrote
Lamentations being known as the weeping prophet, which is one of the reasons
why Lamentations follows Jeremiah. But like so many things there’s no way to
know for sure. There’s just compiling of evidence and gathering it together and
making the best hypothesis. One thing that most scholars agree on, though, is
that whoever did write Lamentations was probably an eyewitness to the
destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem. In history this happen in 586 BC.
The Babylonians invaded Judah and eventually conquered and completely leveled
the city of Jerusalem. And, so, Lamentations was probably written pretty
quickly after during that reverberation as things go out into history. And the
historians look at things and try to figure out how and what happened when the
artists use metaphor to describe emotions that just can’t be put into words. In
Jewish culture today on the ninth day of Ov Lamentations is read and it’s read
on a day of fasting that commemorates the fall of Jerusalem. And reading each
of the poems in the book of Lamentations gives this backdrop. Not only to look
back at…at like the history of a people, but also to offer personal reflection
and offer words giving language to loss and lament. And this is a topic. Like
being sad, lamenting, embracing the feeling of it. That’s not something that we
really are programmed to do. In fact, it’s what we’re programmed to avoid. It’s
not just in Christian culture. It’s in culture in general. Let’s avoid what’s
hard and exalts what is easy, and good and pleasurable. Lamenting isn’t easy.
It’s just that grief touches everybody. Like, eventually grief touches us and
hurts and it’s painful and it’s hard to put into words and it feels
disorienting and like a slog, but also if we’ve gone through grief we know that
kind of purges us as well. It simplifies things. It reminds us of what actually
is important. I kind of washes away the superficial, it kind of gets us down to
the rock, the bedrock of our life and it is intensely painful, but it also is
freeing, because when we have reached the depths of our sadness eventually, we
begin to realize there is hope for the future. And lamenting his language to
that suffering. And putting words to something that is hard to put into words
helps us to release, to begin to open our hands and to begin to think about
newness of life even in the midst of the pain. And, so, that is the territory
that we are heading into as we move into the book of Lamentations. And, so, we
can open ourselves to it. This is where the Bible is leading us. This is where
we are now. And although these kinds of emotions are not the kinds of emotions
we dwell or definitely seek out, they come to us. And when we don’t try to
deflect or disassociate, when we try to allow them to come, allow them to be
what they are, invite God into what we’re feeling, allow things like the book
of Lamentations to give language to what we’re feeling then we begin to realize
that as painful as it may be, we are moving forward, new life will come. And, so,
with that we begin. Lamentations, chapters 1 and 2.
Introduction to Philemon:
Okay. So, we have talked about and begun the book of
Lamentations but we also have new territory in the New Testament to enter
today. This will be the final letter of the apostle Paul. And, so, at this
point, we will leave the apostle Paul and move forward in the New Testament,
but we’ve have been traveling with Paul since we finished the book of Acts. So,
for a while now. This final letter of the apostle Paul is called Philemon and we’re
gonna read…well…it’s a letter. First of all, it’s a letter and we’ll read the
whole letter today, which means we have some new territory to move into in the
New Testament tomorrow, but Philemon is a short personal letter to a person
named Philemon who was a leader in the church at Colossae. Based on what’s in
the letter, it’s likely that Philemon was one of the more wealthy and
influential people in the church at Colossae. In the letter we read of a
congregation that meets in his house. Philemon had a servant and the servant’s
name was Onesimus and Onesimus ran away from Philemon, probably stealing from
Philemon on his way out. That would’ve been an offense very severely
punishable, maybe even by death. And Onesimus likely fled to Rome. He ended up
in Rome but he likely fled to Rome. That’s a populous city full of culture and
all kinds of people coming in and all kinds of people going out. And, so, that
would’ve been a good place to disappear. But instead of disappearing Onesimus ran
into the apostle Paul who was under house arrest awaiting his trial. And, so,
as things turned out Onesimus the runaway slave comes into contact with the
apostle Paul and under Paul’s instruction becomes a follower of Jesus and then Onesimus
served Paul and his needs while he was in Rome. And, so, then sometime later
Paul wrote a letter to the church and Colossae, right? Colossians as we know it.
And the intention was to send Tychicus on the journey to hand deliver the
letter to the church at Colossae. And as he wrote Colossians he also writes this
personal note to Philemon and sends Onesimus back with Tychicus back to Colossae
and Onesimus back to his master, Philemon, which would’ve been a great step of
faith for the runaway Onesimus because that could be life or death. But under
Paul’s leadership Onesimus takes this step of faith and leaves his life in
God’s hands and does the right thing. And, so, Paul writes a brief letter to
Philemon that packs a punch because it shows us the importance of not only
forgiveness but also shows that no matter what kind of authority, we have over
somebody else, if they’re a believer in the Lord, then we are to treat them as
a brother or sister. And this final letter of the apostle Paul in the New
Testament also shows us that indeed God does work all things together for those
who love Him. And, so, we begin and will read in its entirety Philemon.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word. And we have moved in and
even through brand-new territory today. And, so, as we engage with the book of Lamentations,
we invite Your Holy Spirit. It is not easy to face the pain that we suffer
inside emotionally. It’s hard to give it language. It’s something that we try
to avoid. But as the Scriptures have led us into this territory, we embrace
this territory and invite Your Holy Spirit to speak to us. Lead us into wounds
that we still carry with us. We invite You into those places and ask for Your
healing there. And as we have just moved through the final letter of the
apostle Paul, we not only take to heart what Philemon has to teach us but we
also take the heart that we were moving forward and away from the voice of the
apostle Paul. And, so, we give it the honor that it is due. We spent a lot of
weeks together with Paul, but we also look forward to all that You have yet to
teach us through the Scriptures. And, so, come Holy Spirit, we pray. In the
name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
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that’s home base, that is the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on
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And what is going on around here is that we are mere days
away from the release of a brand-new resource for the community. We’ve been
talking about it for I guess a week and a half. It’s called Sleep, a
contemplative journey. And it is exactly that. It’s kinda self-explanatory. That’s
what it’s for, is for providing space, an atmosphere of rest, an atmosphere
that will not only lull us into calm and sleep and rest, but also kind of just
play over us as we rest and dream. And, so, looking forward to…to this…to this
very much. It was created out of necessity. It was created out my own need for
rest and space for that. And it’s interesting, when we create spaces for things
then we go into that space we kind of know what it’s for. And, so, creating
space for sleep and rest was the intention here. And I am very much looking
forward to that being released. You can preorder it now wherever it is that you
get your music. I have mentioned…and it’s not like a preference…well I guess it
is kind of a preference thing, but I’m not saying like one is…one distribution
outlet is better than another. Like if you’re Spotify user or Amazon music or
whatever, it’s everywhere. And there are a bunch of different distributors
around the world as well. And I don’t even know all their names. I use iTunes.
I use Apple music. And, so, you would go to the iTunes store and just search
for Sleep, a contemplative journey or my name Brian Hardin. You’ll find it with
no problem there. And I assume that that will be similar wherever it is that
you are looking. And, so, certainly check this out. Very much excited for
Tuesday to come. I can’t wait for this to enter into the world. I spent a bunch
of time talking about how just creating this in Dolby Atmos, creating this in
spatial audio so that it’s very enveloping. Like, I’m really looking forward to
this getting out there. And, so, check it out.
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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:
Hey this is Blessed to Serve in Georgia and I’m actually
calling it and praying for Karen, the young lady who found out today, this is
October 25th, that she has been diagnosed with cancer. Karen, I…my
heart breaks for you and so many around the world like you that get kind of
news every day. And it just shocks us when we get news like this, but it never
shocks our Savior. It never shocks God. And, so, my prayer is that he would
choose Lord right now to bring instant healing for you Father. The next time
you go to a doctor visit they can’t find the cancer, they don’t know what it is,
and that they are astounded and that you would proclaim loudly for the world to
hear that God chose to heal you. And then I also pray that if God chooses to
use the physicians or He chooses to use medicines, that you would do the same
exact thing. And then lastly if God chooses to bring you eventually to Him and
that is not our desire, but if that is His desire, that you would have a peace,
that your family would have a comfort and assurance to know that you are face
to face, you would be face to face with the Creator the one that loves you more
than that we could ever love you. And then what we look at is painful and as
sad your…you would be able to tell us don’t feel sorry for me, feel grateful
for me, feel envious of me for the fact that I am with my savior. For your
family I pray for great healing and blessings and comfort as you all grew
through this together. And again my number one prayer request Karen would be
that you’re totally healed and that God would be glorified through all of this.
You’re not alone.
Good morning DAB family this is June in Maryland calling in
to pray for Karen. I heard your per request today for your prognosis of cancer
and my heart just broke for you and I’m praying for you. So, let’s pray. Holy
Spirit, I pray God for a miraculous healing over Karen’s body as she goes
through this…this trial…this trial. This is just a trial. This is just a phase.
God, we pray God for miraculous healing over your body. We pray that you be
there to raise your two beautiful children and see your children’s children into
the next generation and even into the third generation. We pray that God give
you all the wisdom strength and love around you as you go through this trial.
What God cannot do does not exist. What God cannot do does not exist. What God
cannot do does not exist. So, you believe, you keep calling in, you keep
praying, you keep the faith, you pray. When you wake up in the middle of the
night you wake up and you pray, when you’re driving and you think about it you
pray, anytime you think about it you pray, anytime you feel fear about it you
pray. You pray Karen because God is there for you. God is with you. He loves you
and God never fails. Everyone have a blessed day.
Hi everyone, this is Toni from Germany, and this is for
regarding the reading and message from October 25th especially Brian’s
comment about it didn’t feel fair the manner in Paul died. And you talked about
endurance. And this resonated with me in part because the summer the Lord had
me go through a discernment process as to whether I would stay in Germany to do
my ministry or do it back in the states. And he made it clear that whatever I
decided that would really be final. And I made the decision that it would be
here. And I knew though in making that decision in the trials of life I
wouldn’t have the support of family with the exception like emails or phone
calls and that even I would likely die alone. But my father has been a role
model in this regard. During the beginning of the pandemic, he and my mom were
in the nursing home and then my mom died, and the nursing home was in lock
down. And my father had to go through the grieving process without the support
of family. No one could visit him. The only contact was really with the iPad
where I connected and in mass with him once a week. It was beautiful. I
remember asking him, dad you feel the presence of the Lord, right? And he said
yes. The Lord is appearing to you isn’t he? He is. So, for all of us who have
to make these kinds of decisions or in these kinds of situations the Lord is
with us. And we will say it’s worth it. God bless.
Hello, my DAB family this is Mark Street from Sydney
Australia today’s Tuesday the 25th of October and I’m just ringing
in because I’ve been listening to this week’s community prayer and I heard Blind
Tony calling in saying that he wants some prayers for his prostate cancer. And I
don’t know if I have the words to say…so let me just pray. Heavenly father we
offer Blind Tony up to You. Lord he’s such an important part of our community
here. He gives his love and Your love through him to all of us Lord. And
selfishly I suppose we all want to still to be here to spread Your message to
us Lord and his wonderful poetry and music and his personality Lord. We know
that You can heal him. Please heal him Lord so that he can spread Your message
more through this community in Your name I pray Amen. Love you Blind Tony and
I’m sure everybody else will be calling in for you too. Mark Street from Sydney
Australia. Bye.
