12/21/2022 DAB Transcript

Zechariah 1:1-21, Revelation 12:1-17, Psalm 140:1-13, Proverbs 30:17

Today is the 21st day of December, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire and I’m glad that we can take we can take the next step forward together. And that next step forward, as you can imagine this time of year, leads us to a brand-new book the 11th out of the 12 minor prophets. But we get to kind of exhale, settle in and stay with this upcoming text for a while.

Introduction to the Book of Zechariah:

This is the book of Zechariah, and we will hang out here in Zechariah until the last two days of the year together. Zechariah was a contemporary with Haggai, which is the book that we read yesterday. Although Zechariah continued his ministry long after Haggai, but they were prophesying at the same place, at the same time, for the same reason, which is the rebuilding of the temple. And what we know is Zechariah’s grandfather, his name was Edo, was among the first of the leaders of the priestly families that were able to return to the ancestral homeland after exile, and Edo came back with Zerubbabel. And that tells us a little bit about Zechariah that he was probably a priest. He was at least a part of a priestly family, and his name means God remembers and it is a covenantal remembering that is the theme of the book of Zechariah. And we read Haggai in its entirety yesterday. Zechariah is gonna take us to the last couple of days of the year. So, it’s a much longer than Haggai’s, so, there’s a bigger scope here and some different features. Like Zechariah will tell us of 8-night visions that he was able to experience and they all kind of have, have an apocalyptic nature to them. They’re very, highly symbolic, very similar to what reading in the book of Revelation right now. In light of the rebuilding of the temple, God was initiating a much broader plan of sweeping restoration, but the people would have to respond. And so, we find in Zechariah God saying things like return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of Heaven’s armies. And Zechariah also foretells of a coming messianic figure. There are, are verses that should sound familiar, like rejoice oh people of Zion, shout in triumph oh people of Jerusalem, look your King is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet He is humble riding on a donkey, riding on a donkey’s colt. That should sound familiar. That sounds an awful lot like Jesus and because of that, Zechariah is quoted in the New Testament. So, Zechariah being an Old Testament prophetic book is quoted in the gospel of Matthew, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of John and in the book of Revelation, all in reference to Jesus. And ultimately Zechariah is meant to be received as a prophetic encouragement and to remind us that God is absolutely sovereign in all things, at all times, and in all places, known or unknown, and we can rest in that because God is our Father. The sovereign God is our Father. And if we return to Him, He will return to us. And so, we begin Zechariah chapter 1.

Prayer:

Father, thank You again for another day. Thank You again for the celebration that we are involved in right now, as we approach Christmas day. Thank You for the joy that we experience in our hearts. Thank You for the overwhelming love that we are contemplating this week. Thank You for the gift of Your arrival. Thank You for the gift of the Scriptures. Thank You for the gift of each other around the Global Campfire each day as we continue to pursue your word and feast upon it, as You lead us into the truth. We love You, Lord, we adore You, we honor You. Thank You for the wisdom that You have bestowed upon us and the life that You have given us, and we ask as we do so often lead us into all truth. We pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. We’re moving through the week of Christmas. That’s what’s going on around here all over the place. I was just thinking a minute ago that today would’ve been my parent’s wedding anniversary. Of course, they’re celebrating all of this in heaven. But I remember them both today and every day for that matter, but I remember them both and miss them myself, at Christmas time. But we are moving through the Christmas week and let’s remember to stay locked in here around the Global Campfire. We talked about this before the season ever started, and now we are in the thick of it. And let’s remember that we have an oasis that we can come to each and every day out of the hustle and bustle, a safe place to allow God to speak through his word and let’s enjoy, enjoy this moment of celebration that God is with us, as we continue these days, marching toward Christmas day.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible in these remaining days of this year that we have together, thank you, humbly, deeply, profoundly for your partnership, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. That is what makes it a Global Campfire and so thank you, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage and dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey Dr. John, this is Artie from Arkansas. I want just to connect with you and say hey, I am a Ezra grandpa as well and it is the greatest thing, God’s gift to us to be able to hold your child’s child. Oh, my goodness. Such joy, such wonder. And holding this child is, is holding a piece of me, a piece of my history and just, it’s so great. My daughter and her husband’s family, oh my. Everything about it, is just marvelous. But it’s how I also know how God loves us, how God loves me because we are part of God also. He created us and as much as I would do anything for, for my Ezra and other grandchildren, I would, I know that God would do the same for us. So, I just want to congratulate you and I want to end with that my daughter sent this video of Ezra singing a song, he was singing jingle bells jingle bells, the Bible tells me so. Oh, I thought that was the greatest. Anyway, happy for you, happy for every one of the DABers, have a blessed Christmas and a New Year. Bye now.

Hi, this is Lara calling from New York. I wanted to call in, today is Friday, December 16th.  I just heard the prayer request from a gentleman with the 26-year-old son who is nonverbal autistic and he just placed him in a state facility, a group home. And sir, I wanted to call in as my heart goes out to you. You mentioned that you wanted prayer from folks who have no idea what you’re going through. Sir, I know exactly what you are going through. I also have a nonverbal autistic son, he is 12 and in addition, an older son that is also on the spectrum and so, I do completely understand, and in fact we’re in the process of placing our 12-year-old son in a residential program, knowing that it is going to be the best thing for him. And so, I just want to encourage you, this is going to be wonderful for your son. I’m just sure of it, I’m sure that you again, there are, there are things that they can do that, that we as parents we just can’t, but I do understand the heartbreak. I am going through it myself and so I just I just want you to know that that’s there are others out there who understand, who are going through the exact same thing and that God is, He’s with us, He’s here and I just, I lift you up. I pray for you, and I pray for your son. Amen.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible, this is Drea from New Mexico and I have 2 prayer requests. One for my son who’s 25 years old and has lost his job, his car and his place of living within a short period of time and bad decisions. And he just needs help getting back online and back in a job. And I’d also like to pray for myself, my bank account has been hacked and someone has been trying to steal thousands of dollars from me. And I’m taking precautions but I’m a single mom and this is very scary. And just need the blood of Jesus. So, if you could pray for that, I would very much appreciate it. Thank you.

Good morning, Daily Audio Bible, this is Joyous Janice, coming to you on just a few days before Christmas. Yesterday, Brian read from the book of Revelation, that verse that says that God will wipe away every tear. And it brought to mind, two and half years ago when my husband drew his last breath, I was standing next to him, and I knew his time was just about there. And I told him, Jesus is coming for you very soon. And he was unable to speak but he had tears running down his eyes and then he took his last breath. And I know now that God has wiped all those tears from his eyes and he’s in heaven, rejoicing with him. And I just thank the Lord for that hope that we all have, and we will see our loved ones in heaven, and He is going to wipe away even our very tears that we are crying today because we miss them. God bless you and Merry Christmas to all.

Good morning DAB family, this is Saved by Grace in California. I’d just like to lift up in prayer our brother Josh, who’s in hospital in Keiser, in Fresno. Father, in the name of Jesus, I lift my brother up to you. I plea the blood of Jesus over him and I pray for his salvation. I claim this soul for Jesus Christ. I pray Father, for his healing power, Your healing power to touch him Father God, from the very top of his head to the very souls of his feet. Let Your healing power penetrate his body and make him whole. I pray for the doctors and nurses, Lord, that You give them wisdom, guidance and discernment. Father, I pray for all the medication, Father God, that it would do that what is set out to do. And we thank You for this victory over him. We thank You for the healing in his body right now. We thank You in advance, Father God, for that which you are about to do and the testimony and the miracle that is about to occur in his body. Father, that, that You will be glorified, that others will see this, Father God, and come to know You, and trust in You, Father God. We thank You for this victory, Lord, and I pray for my sister who brought this prayer to us, that You remove all anxiety, worry and fear from her. And just give her a heart of just peace and comfort. In this I pray in Jesus name. Amen.