4/30/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 11:1-12:15, John 1:1-28, Psalm 101:1-8, Proverbs 14:13-14

Today is the 30th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and we made it, we made it guys, we made two through four, well we have almost made it through four months of the year. So, we’re bringing this month in for a landing. And even as we end this month we will be beginning a brand-new book, the Gospel of John today, and we’ll talk about that when we get there. Well done, here we are at the cusp and tomorrow we will begin our fifth month together. But before we can do that, we need to take the next step, the one that’s right in front of us. The one that’s for today and that leads us back into the Book of Judges. We’ll read from the English Standard Version this week and today, Judges chapters 11 and 12.

Introduction to the Book of John:

Okay, so as we, well, we’re kind of midway through our last reading for the month of April. So as we prepare to end the month of April, we also prepared to begin brand-new territory. The Gospel of John, the last of the narratives in the New Testament that describe Jesus earthly life, and His ministry and His personality and His character, which means that we have completed Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And just by way of reminder, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, are known as the synoptic Gospels, and that is because even…even though they were written in different times and two different audiences, they share a lot of similarities and a lot of the same stories so that they are known as the Synoptics. Whereas the Gospel of John takes us, like gives us a completely different tone and has a totally different texture than the other gospels do. It’s like 90% different from the other Gospels, which allows us a different perspective and context for the life of Jesus and His ministry. And it’s also widely believed that is far as time goes, John was the last one to be written. And so, John would have known the stories that, that were, that were going around and that had been written down. He was there and so, rather than telling the same stories he wrote things from his perspective. And this is important because the other Gospels, although written to differing audiences, meant to share the story, the good news of Jesus and who He was in a compelling way, to give a reason to believe. Whereas John writes his gospel to those who already do believe, to strengthen and deepen the faith of those who love Jesus. And as I’ve said before, this is the last time we move through this territory. The last time, not the last time in our lives, the last time as we move through this year that we will move through the narrative stories of the life of Jesus, known as the Gospels. This is the final gospel and so, may we drink deeply as we continue our journey forward and that next step, John chapter 1 verses 1 to 28.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word in this brand-new month that we are about to end. So, we begin a week, we begin a brand-new book and we end a month all on the same day. Thank You, for bringing us to this milestone, as we continue to take steps for day-by-day and step-by-step together. And as we enter into the Gospel of John, may we indeed drink deeply, may we savor all of the moments, as we move through this final gospel. And Holy Spirit, lead us deeper into our relationship and love with Jesus. We pray in His name we ask. Amen.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Dear Lord, I pray for Prodigal. I ask You to pour out Your blessings upon him. Fill him with your Holy Spirit so that his joints are revitalized, that his bones and his muscles are strengthened. Lord, give him a joy that only comes from You, in the midst of his struggles. Lord, we love Prodigal. We ask for Your blessing and it’s in Jesus name that we ask these things. Amen. Prodigal, this is your brother Bart from Kentucky. I’m praying for you and I know so many others are as well. Hang in there brother. Have a good day brother.

Hey DABers, this is KT from Western New York. A long-time listener, like 10 years or so, first-time caller. So, here I go. I’m calling for a special request for a dear friend of ours Mira, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. She’s having a double mastectomy with reconstructive surgery. We just pray for proper healing throughout that. The doctors guidance for comfort for her family. We also pray for a friend of ours son, named Austin. We didn’t get specifics on what he needs prayer for, she just asked us to pray for him. So, that’s what we’re doing. Thank you so much, his family needs so much to us on a daily basis. Thank you so much. Have a great day.

Hi, DAB family, I just listened the prayer from April 19th. I think her name was Winter. You talked about realizing you’re in the early stages of co-dependency and those issues. And I just wanted to encourage you to know that there is power in the name of Jesus. I’ve dealt with co-dependency all my life, you know, co-dependency right in my home, with parents. And one of the things that helped me of course was prayer and hanging on to Jesus. But what it was, going to Celebrate Recovery and Celebrate Recovery brought that community that I needed and it just helped me to be able to overcome and work through the co-dependency. So, if that, if you want to look for that and see if there’s something like that near where you live, but find that community. If you don’t have it at your church, then maybe a place along with the DAB family as well. But you’re in the first step, recognizing that and so, just be encouraged and hold on to the Lord and seek His will and through Him you will be able to overcome that. And so, I just want to pray for your real quick. In the name of Jesus, I lift up Winder, Father God. You know her heart, You know her life, Father God. And I just lift up her needs, Lord Jesus. I pray that You give her wisdom, that You give her discernment, Lord. That You would help her to stay focused on her health and what she can do to change herself to become the person that You have chosen her to become, Father God. And that You give her courage and strength, Father God, to be able to go through this process, one day at a time. And I pray blessings over her life and her mother and all of her family. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, is April 24th 2023, Monday 820am central time. This is Diane Olive and Jeff Brown from Newburg, Indiana. Shalom Shalom, nothing is missing and nothing is broken. I was so happy to be able to pray and intercede for all of the Daily Audio Bible children of God and all the children of God all over the world. I love you all and the Lord is bringing me up, up, up, to a new place in him. I just want to rejoice in that place. I want to rejoice of that place and sing of the blessings of Jesus, all over us. And I love you, kiss kiss, muah muah muah muah. I love you, His Little Sharie. I love you, Rebecca from Michigan. I love you, all of you. I love you Brian. I love you Jill. I love you China. I love you Ezekiel. I love you the other children of Brian and Jill. And I love you sister Billy, my spiritual mother. I’m so grateful and I’m so thankful. I could never thank you enough for the prayers you prayed for me. I could never thank you enough.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible Family. This is Alex, Soldier Forgotten with a long overdue praise report. Months ago I called asking for prayers for my wife and our unborn child, because we were worried about complications from anemia. Long story short, we have a beautiful, plump baby who’s over six weeks old now and doing wonderful. So, I thank you all for your prayers. We have named him Caius, which means rejoice and we definitely are rejoicing for having him. I will definitely be praying for those people in Haiti, the children and the workers and all they’re going through. And I ask that we all pray for our older generation, our generation that we may teach the next generations the importance of God and his lessons. And as we’ve gone through the Book of Judges, it always shows what happens when the next generation forgets what the previous generation learned. I pray and beg that it won’t happen to her our next one. I pray that they may be stronger in our faith then we were, stronger in their walk, more sharpened in the knowledge of God, thank you for your prayers.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday April 30, 2023 (NIV)

Judges 11-12

11 Jephthah, a brave soldier from Gilead, was the son of a prostitute. His father Gilead had other sons by his wife, and when they grew up, they forced Jephthah to leave home. They told him, “You will not inherit anything from our father; you are the son of another woman.” Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. There he attracted a group of worthless men, and they went around with him.

It was some time later that the Ammonites went to war against Israel. When this happened, the leaders of Gilead went to bring Jephthah back from the land of Tob. They told him, “Come and lead us, so that we can fight the Ammonites.”

But Jephthah answered, “You hated me so much that you forced me to leave my father's house. Why come to me now that you're in trouble?”

They said to Jephthah, “We are turning to you now because we want you to go with us and fight the Ammonites and lead all the people of Gilead.”

Jephthah said to them, “If you take me back home to fight the Ammonites and the Lord gives me victory, I will be your ruler.”

10 They replied, “We agree. The Lord is our witness.” 11 So Jephthah went with the leaders of Gilead, and the people made him their ruler and leader. Jephthah stated his terms at Mizpah in the presence of the Lord.

12 Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of Ammon to say, “What is your quarrel with us? Why have you invaded our country?”

13 The king of Ammon answered Jephthah's messengers, “When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they took away my land from the Arnon River to the Jabbok River and the Jordan River. Now you must give it back peacefully.”

14 Jephthah sent messengers back to the king of Ammon 15 with this answer: “It is not true that Israel took away the land of Moab or the land of Ammon. 16 This is what happened: when the Israelites left Egypt, they went through the desert to the Gulf of Aqaba and came to Kadesh. 17 (A)Then they sent messengers to the king of Edom to ask permission to go through his land. But the king of Edom would not let them. They also asked the king of Moab, but neither would he let them go through his land. So the Israelites stayed at Kadesh. 18 (B)Then they went on through the desert, going around the land of Edom and the land of Moab until they came to the east side of Moab, on the other side of the Arnon River. They camped there, but they did not cross the Arnon because it was the boundary of Moab. 19 (C)Then the Israelites sent messengers to Sihon, the Amorite king of Heshbon, and asked him for permission to go through his country to their own land. 20 But Sihon would not let Israel do it. He brought his whole army together, camped at Jahaz, and attacked Israel. 21 But the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the Israelites victory over Sihon and his army. So the Israelites took possession of all the territory of the Amorites who lived in that country. 22 They occupied all the Amorite territory from the Arnon in the south to the Jabbok in the north and from the desert on the east to the Jordan on the west. 23 So it was the Lord, the God of Israel, who drove out the Amorites for his people, the Israelites. 24 Are you going to try to take it back? You can keep whatever your god Chemosh has given you. But we are going to keep everything that the Lord, our God, has taken for us. 25 (D)Do you think you are any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? He never challenged Israel, did he? Did he ever go to war against us? 26 For three hundred years Israel has occupied Heshbon and Aroer, and the towns around them, and all the cities on the banks of the Arnon River. Why haven't you taken them back in all this time? 27 No, I have not done you any wrong. You are doing wrong by making war on me. The Lord is the judge. He will decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” 28 But the king of Ammon paid no attention to this message from Jephthah.

29 Then the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah. He went through Gilead and Manasseh and returned to Mizpah in Gilead and went on to Ammon. 30 Jephthah promised the Lord: “If you will give me victory over the Ammonites, 31 I will burn as an offering the first person that comes out of my house to meet me, when I come back from the victory. I will offer that person to you as a sacrifice.”

32 So Jephthah crossed the river to fight the Ammonites, and the Lord gave him victory. 33 He struck at them from Aroer to the area around Minnith, twenty cities in all, and as far as Abel Keramim. There was a great slaughter, and the Ammonites were defeated by Israel.

Jephthah's Daughter

34 When Jephthah went back home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him, dancing and playing the tambourine. She was his only child. 35 (E)When he saw her, he tore his clothes in sorrow and said, “Oh, my daughter! You are breaking my heart! Why must it be you that causes me pain? I have made a solemn promise to the Lord, and I cannot take it back!”

36 She told him, “If you have made a promise to the Lord, do what you said you would do to me, since the Lord has given you revenge on your enemies, the Ammonites.” 37 But she asked her father, “Do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months, so that I can go with my friends to wander in the mountains and grieve that I must die a virgin.” 38 He told her to go and sent her away for two months. She and her friends went up into the mountains and grieved because she was going to die unmarried and childless. 39 After two months she came back to her father. He did what he had promised the Lord, and she died still a virgin.

This was the origin of the custom in Israel 40 that the Israelite women would go out for four days every year to grieve for the daughter of Jephthah of Gilead.

Jephthah and the Ephraimites

12 The men of Ephraim prepared for battle; they crossed the Jordan River to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you cross the border to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We'll burn the house down over your head!”

But Jephthah told them, “My people and I had a serious quarrel with the Ammonites. I did call you, but you would not rescue me from them. When I saw that you were not going to, I risked my life and crossed the border to fight them, and the Lord gave me victory over them. So why are you coming up to fight me now?” Then Jephthah brought all the men of Gilead together, fought the men of Ephraim and defeated them. (The Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites in Ephraim and Manasseh, you are deserters from Ephraim!”) In order to keep the Ephraimites from escaping, the Gileadites captured the places where the Jordan could be crossed. When any Ephraimite who was trying to escape would ask permission to cross, the men of Gilead would ask, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” they would tell him to say “Shibboleth.” But he would say “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they would grab him and kill him there at one of the Jordan River crossings. At that time forty-two thousand of the Ephraimites were killed.

Jephthah led Israel for six years. Then he died and was buried in his hometown[a] in Gilead.

Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon

After Jephthah, Ibzan from Bethlehem led Israel. He had thirty sons and thirty daughters. He gave his daughters in marriage outside the clan and brought thirty young women from outside the clan for his sons to marry. Ibzan led Israel for seven years, 10 then he died and was buried at Bethlehem.

11 After Ibzan, Elon from Zebulun led Israel for ten years. 12 Then he died and was buried at Aijalon in the territory of Zebulun.

13 After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel from Pirathon led Israel. 14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. Abdon led Israel for eight years, 15 then he died and was buried at Pirathon in the territory of Ephraim in the hill country of the Amalekites.

Footnotes:

  1. Judges 12:7 One ancient translation his hometown; Hebrew the towns.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

John 1:1-28

The Word of Life

In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God. From the very beginning the Word was with God. Through him God made all things; not one thing in all creation was made without him. The Word was the source of life,[a] and this life brought light to people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out.

(A)God sent his messenger, a man named John, who came to tell people about the light, so that all should hear the message and believe. He himself was not the light; he came to tell about the light. This was the real light—the light that comes into the world and shines on all people.

10 The Word was in the world, and though God made the world through him, yet the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to his own country, but his own people did not receive him. 12 Some, however, did receive him and believed in him; so he gave them the right to become God's children. 13 They did not become God's children by natural means, that is, by being born as the children of a human father; God himself was their Father.

14 The Word became a human being and, full of grace and truth, lived among us. We saw his glory, the glory which he received as the Father's only Son.

15 John spoke about him. He cried out, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘He comes after me, but he is greater than I am, because he existed before I was born.’”

16 Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another. 17 God gave the Law through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

John the Baptist's Message(B)

19 The Jewish authorities in Jerusalem sent some priests and Levites to John to ask him, “Who are you?”

20 John did not refuse to answer, but spoke out openly and clearly, saying: “I am not the Messiah.”

21 (C)“Who are you, then?” they asked. “Are you Elijah?”

“No, I am not,” John answered.

“Are you the Prophet?”[b] they asked.

“No,” he replied.

22 “Then tell us who you are,” they said. “We have to take an answer back to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?”

23 (D)John answered by quoting the prophet Isaiah:

“I am ‘the voice of someone shouting in the desert:
Make a straight path for the Lord to travel!’”

24 The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees, 25 then[c] asked John, “If you are not the Messiah nor Elijah nor the Prophet, why do you baptize?”

26 John answered, “I baptize with water, but among you stands the one you do not know. 27 He is coming after me, but I am not good enough even to untie his sandals.”

28 All this happened in Bethany on the east side of the Jordan River, where John was baptizing.

Footnotes:

  1. John 1:4 The Word was the source of life; or What was made had life in union with the Word.
  2. John 1:21 The one who was expected to appear and announce the coming of the Messiah.
  3. John 1:25 The messengers, who had been sent by the Pharisees, then; or Those who had been sent were Pharisees; they.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Psalm 101

A King's Promise[a]

101 My song is about loyalty and justice,
and I sing it to you, O Lord.
My conduct will be faultless.
When will you come to me?

I will live a pure life in my house
and will never tolerate evil.
I hate the actions of those who turn away from God;
I will have nothing to do with them.
I will not be dishonest[b]
and will have no dealings with evil.[c]
I will get rid of anyone
who whispers evil things about someone else;
I will not tolerate anyone
who is proud and arrogant.

I will approve of those who are faithful to God
and will let them live in my palace.
Those who are completely honest
will be allowed to serve me.

No liar will live in my palace;
no hypocrite will remain in my presence.
Day after day I will destroy
the wicked in our land;
I will expel all who are evil
from the city of the Lord.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 101:1 HEBREW TITLE: A psalm by David.
  2. Psalm 101:4 not be dishonest; or stay away from dishonest people.
  3. Psalm 101:4 evil; or evil people.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Proverbs 14:13-14

13 Laughter may hide sadness. When happiness is gone, sorrow is always there.

14 Bad people will get what they deserve. Good people will be rewarded for their deeds.[a]

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 14:14 Probable text for their deeds; Hebrew from upon them.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

4/28/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 8:18-9:21, Luke 23:44-24:12, Psalms 99:1-9, Proverbs 14:9-10

Today is the 28th day of April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today. Every day it’s great to be here together as we gather and take another step forward in the Scriptures. And our next step forward leads us back into the Book of Judges and we have been working our way through the story of the judge named Gideon, which we will continue today. Judges chapter 8 verse 18 through 9 verse 21.

Commentary:

Okay, so in the Book of Judges today, we do indeed come to the end of Gideon, the judge of Israel, his life. But before all of that, the Israelites came and attempted to make Gideon and his family the leaders over the tribes due to his…his leadership and his victory over Midian. Gideon refused. Gideon refused that he would be leader, that any of his sons would be leader. It was the Lord who would lead them and then they had peace for 40 years and then Gideon died and then it’s just like, immediately they switch gears and go in another direction. And so, the Bible tells us that as soon as Gideon died, the Israelites started to prostitute themselves by worshiping Baal, Baal-berith witch became their God and they forgot the God who had rescued them from…from the Midianites. And then to come take things to another level, Gideon had 70 sons, one of his sons was named Abimelech, he was born of a concubine of Gideon in the city of Shechem. And so, he goes and asks the people of Shechem who are wanting to appoint a leader. Shouldn’t he be their leader, basically? He’s one of them, he’s their own flesh and blood. He’s a real brother of theirs, shouldn’t he be the leader? And they basically, they say, yeah, he should be the leader. And so, what ensues is that Abimelech goes and tries to assassinate, kill all of his actual brothers, like destroy the whole family of his father, Gideon, and only the youngest one escaped. Like this is a picture of unbelievable injustice, after what God had done for them. But if we’re talking injustice, than we just flip over to the Gospel of Luke and we see it on full display. By looking upon a Savior nailed to a cross, dying. And obviously, this is…this is the Easter story, the story of the passion of Jesus and his death and burial, and resurrection, all of which we read about today. So, we should have an enormous joy in our hearts that having the opportunity to see this story come around once again and remind us of our salvation. We can also see just what was going on because the Gospels tell us they were confused. The women go to the tomb. They don’t know what’s going on. Some men tell them he’s not here. He’s among the living, and they go back and tell the apostles and then Peter runs to the tomb because the apostles had all heard the women and thought that they were talking nonsense. And so, Peter goes and sees that the tomb is empty and is amazed and they have to believe, as we do that with the Gospel of Luke tells us, He isn’t here, He is risen from the dead, is true. Imagine when they began to believe that, even though they had been told that when they began to believe that when they began to be able to see that. Imagine the hope that came out of complete hopelessness. And may we remember that the same hope in the face of hopelessness is available to all of us. And may we spend this day as a day of gratitude, continually being reminded of our rescue and continually offering gratitude to Jesus for that rescue, in the face of profound injustice, life sprang forth and changed the world and we are the recipients of this, as our lives are transformed. So we have moved through this territory in the Gospel of Luke, which leaves one more gospel for us. We’ve experienced this story three out of the four times that we get to. So let’s spend some time today immersing ourselves in the fact that we were hopelessly lost and we were rescued when we didn’t deserve it. And now our lives are spent revealing the Good News to all who will hear that rescue is available that there is a better way.

Prayer:

And so, Father, we invite You into that. Holy Spirit, plant this reality deep in the soil of our hearts. May it be unshakable. May we cling to it, our hope is in You. We are utterly dependent upon You. And we ask that You lead us into all truth today, as we consider and meditate upon the fact that You came for us to rescue us and You were victorious and all we need to do is believe You. And so, lead us, we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask, Amen.

Announcements:

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh, every day and offered to anyone who will listen, anywhere, anytime. If that has been life-giving to you then thank you profoundly and humbly for your partnership. We wouldn’t, there wouldn’t be a Global Campfire if we weren’t throwing logs on together. And so, thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right hand corner or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello, I’m a fairly new listener. You can call me Early Bird if no one is using that already. I’ve been giving myself whiplash on trying to decide to call in or not. But there were a few people who called in that felt like little nudges, so here we are. I have just felt like so many things in my life are currently on fire, that I get overwhelmed just trying to think of what to ask for prayer for, if that makes sense. But I feel nudged to just start, just do something instead of waiting to feel better able to articulate my requests. I don’t want to feel like I’m always waiting on something to finally feel better or be better and miss out on living. All of this to say, I had to quit my job before having a plan ironed out due to it becoming a very unhealthy environment. But I also run an animal rescue out of my home and my income was basically funding everything. So, I have all lives that I’m responsible for and only a couple of months worth in my savings to get something figured out. My second request is prayer for sleep. My sleep aid that I’ve used for years recently stopped working and I’ve probably slept 6 hours in the past three days. And I’ve also been sick and so my body aches. And I’m just, I’m constantly miserable. So, yes, I would appreciate your prayers. Thank you.

Hello, Brian and Daily Audio Bible Family. I am a long time listener, off and on. And when I’ve been off, I’ve been off. So, it’s been really good to be back in the house of the Lord with people who are moving toward being better versions of themselves. Today, I was listening to Book of Joshua. As you read through on April 13th I believe, talking about Achin taking the gold and how we have to choose who we’re gonna serve, either serve God or whatever else distraction in our lives are. And for me that happened through the lens of adultery. And I made a huge mistake that is impacting my family, it’s impacting me and my children and of course it’s mostly impacting my wife the hardest. And so I’m calling for prayer. This happened quite a bit ago like over a year ago and it’s just now coming out and like there hasn’t been any contact. I cut off all contact and I’ve been seeking the Lord, and trying to turn right when I turned wrong. And it’s not easy – and this is my first time calling, although I’ve known about you for the entire 18 year. And I just really need prayer, not only to get past this, but to really understand deep within me what caused this trauma and how I got to be in this place, because trying to figure it out but I appreciate everybody. I appreciate the prayers and thank you so much for the opportunity to have folks alongside you in prayer. And again, I’m sorry to my family, to my wife and so on and so forth. Thank you.

Hey DAB, it’s J from the Bay. Victoria from Louisiana, thank you. God, I’m gonna cry. Thank you, so very much for your prayers for my little brother Nick. And everybody else to whom which called Victoria, my mom boo hoo’d cried, I just told her, you just have to give it to God. Nonetheless, I’m asking for prayers again for my little brother. As we all know he was shot. The detectives believe that his friend shot him. He’s saying that it was three men, three in total, including my little brother. So, they don’t know if it was the friend or the friends friend, that shot him. But nonetheless, I’m just asking for prayers for him because even though he was shot and doctors said like, it could have went a smidge to the left or the right and he would have been dead. He’s not taking Him serious. He never wore the sling; he’s still hanging out with these boys because they grew up together and just, I don’t know. We got into an argument this week and I have to ask God for forgiveness but I just have to give it to God. I…I…I, even though I’m the big sister, I can’t deal with this and can’t keep allowing my mom to deal with it, so I told him I’m done. If you want to throw your life away, go for it. I’ll continue to pray for you but there is absolutely no reason why he should be acting like this. My mom and his dad did a great job of raising him and made sure that we had everything and anything that we could ask for. Whether it was when we asked for it or it was delayed, we got it. So, I just want to ask if you guys could keep him in your prayers or in your thoughts. And his friends, just keep praying for them all. Thank you and I love you all so much and I hope you all have a blessed day.  

This is Tom from Texas. I’m in desperate way. I’m in a place I’ve never been before; the last several years just going down and down and down. Wife, divorced, kids don’t have much of anything to do with me. Family, even all my supposedly close friends aren’t around. I’m completely alone. Even God seems far away. I know he has me but He doesn’t seem to be speaking or giving me any guidance. Physical health has gone down the last couple years, things that have happened, not even working. Seems like everything’s been taken away. Can’t figure out why, is it me and my sin, is just attacks of the devil. But I am alone, hanging on. Reading God’s word every day, praying, wondering what I’m supposed to be doing.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible Family. Thank you for all your lovely prayer requests and prayers and blessings and care for each other. Thank you Brian and family for continue faithfulness of this amazing Audio Bible program. Just want to ask a few things because our Savior says all you have to do is ask and you shall receive and I firmly agree when something special happens. So, I just ask for your blessing on my family situation. My wife is in a psychiatrist unit, my daughter is just about to be discharged from an eating disorder unit, coming home. My wife’s mother, my mother in law has cancer and just got a blood clot in her lung. So, I pray that You would heal my wife, she had a nervous breakdown really over our daughter’s situation. Will You heal her, would you heal our daughter and You’d heal my mother in law. And Your peace would be with her as she’s 80 something and nearing, you know, not that long. I pray that everyone would be blessed who listens to this and that Jesus would share everyone with His blessings. All keep abiding and strength from him. In Jesus name. Amen.

04/29/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 9:22-10:18, Luke 24:13-53, Psalms 100:1-5, Proverbs 14:11-12

Today is the 29th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we…as we come in for a landing on another one of our weeks together. And we’re about to bring another one of our months together in for a landing but we’re here now taking the next step forward. And the next step forward leads us back to where we left off, which will bring us to the book of Judges once again. We’ve been reading through the story of Gideon and Gideon has died now and his son Abimelech has killed all but one of his sons. Abimelech is a son of Gideon. He was born to his concubine in the city of Shechem. And we will pick up the story from there. Judges chapter 9 verse 22 through 10 verse 18 today.

Prayer:

Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for bringing us another week into and through Scriptures. We thank you for all that the Scriptures touch inside of us and the way that they open our eyes that we might see. And we ask Holy Spirit that you continue to lead us to the truth and nothing but the truth. Lead us deeper into Jesus. Lead us deeper in our commitment and relationship in covenant with you. Lead us in the way that we should go. And even as we prepare to end a month and even as we’ve concluded the gospel of Luke today, we have one more gospel, the gospel of John that we begin tomorrow. And Holy Spirit come and lead us as we share this time over these coming days moving through the gospel of John. We love you Lord. We are grateful for the opportunity to…to live at the time that we do and have the technology that we do that would allow us to gather each and every day and take a step forward. We ask that you would continue helping us, leading us forward in the way that we should go. We pray this in the name of Jesus, our Savior and our Lord. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is the website, obviously. That’s where you can find out what’s happening around here. And, so, indeed do that if you haven’t yet. You can download the Daily Audio Bible app from whatever app store works with your smart device, and put all of it in the palm of your hand. And, so, indeed, check that out.

While you’re checking out check out the different sections like the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are resources there in the shop in a wide range or a wide variety and they are all geared around this journey, this journey, one year, 365 days spending our lives together meeting up every day and moving through the Scriptures together. So, check out the resources that are available in the Shop to take us deeper, to take us wider on this journey.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible then thank you, with humble gratitude thank you. 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 hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up 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:

Coming soon…

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Saturday April 29, 2023 (NIV)

Judges 9:22-10:18

22 Abimelech ruled Israel for three years. 23 Then God made Abimelech and the men of Shechem hostile to each other, and they rebelled against Abimelech. 24 This happened so that Abimelech and the men of Shechem, who encouraged him to murder Gideon's seventy sons, would pay for their crime. 25 The men of Shechem put men in ambush against Abimelech on the mountaintops, and they robbed everyone who passed their way. Abimelech was told about this.

26 Then Gaal son of Ebed came to Shechem with his brothers, and the men of Shechem put their confidence in him. 27 They all went out into their vineyards and picked the grapes, made wine from them, and held a festival. They went into the temple of their god, where they ate and drank and made fun of Abimelech. 28 Gaal said, “What kind of men are we in Shechem? Why are we serving Abimelech? Who is he, anyway? The son of Gideon! And Zebul takes orders from him, but why should we serve him? Be loyal to your ancestor Hamor, who founded your clan! 29 I wish I were leading this people! I would get rid of Abimelech! I would tell[a] him, ‘Reinforce your army, come on out and fight!’”

30 Zebul, the ruler of the city, became angry when he heard what Gaal had said. 31 He sent messengers to Abimelech at Arumah[b] to say, “Gaal son of Ebed and his brothers have come to Shechem, and they are not going to let you into the city. 32 Now then, you and your men should move by night and hide in the fields. 33 Get up tomorrow morning at sunrise and make a sudden attack on the city. Then when Gaal and his men come out against you, hit them with all you've got!”

34 So Abimelech and all his men made their move at night and hid outside Shechem in four groups. 35 When Abimelech and his men saw Gaal come out and stand at the city gate, they got up from their hiding places. 36 Gaal saw them and said to Zebul, “Look! There are men coming down from the mountaintops!”

“Those are not men,” Zebul answered. “They are just shadows on the mountains.”

37 Gaal said again, “Look! There are men coming down the crest of the mountain and one group is coming along the road from the oak tree of the fortunetellers!”

38 Then Zebul said to him, “Where is all your big talk now? You were the one who asked why we should serve this man Abimelech. These are the men you were making fun of. Go on out now and fight them.” 39 Gaal led the men of Shechem out and fought Abimelech. 40 Abimelech started after Gaal, and Gaal ran. Many were wounded, even at the city gate. 41 Abimelech lived in Arumah, and Zebul drove Gaal and his brothers out of Shechem, so that they could no longer live there.

42 The next day Abimelech found out that the people of Shechem were planning to go out into the fields, 43 so he took his men, divided them into three groups, and hid in the fields, waiting. When he saw the people coming out of the city, he came out of hiding to kill them. 44 While Abimelech and his group hurried forward to guard the city gate, the other two companies attacked the people in the fields and killed them all. 45 The fighting continued all day long. Abimelech captured the city, killed its people, tore it down, and covered the ground with salt.

46 When all the leading men in the fort at Shechem heard about this, they sought safety in the stronghold of the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant. 47 Abimelech was told that they had gathered there, 48 so he went up to Mount Zalmon with his men. There he took an ax, cut a limb off a tree, and put it on his shoulder. He told his men to hurry and do the same thing. 49 So everyone cut off a tree limb; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people of the fort died—about a thousand men and women.

50 Then Abimelech went to Thebez, surrounded that city, and captured it. 51 There was a strong tower there, and every man and woman in the city, including the leaders, ran to it. They locked themselves in and went up to the roof. 52 When Abimelech came to attack the tower, he went up to the door to set the tower on fire. 53 (A)But a woman threw a millstone down on his head and fractured his skull. 54 Then he quickly called the young man who was carrying his weapons and told him, “Draw your sword and kill me. I don't want it said that a woman killed me.” So the young man ran him through, and he died. 55 When the Israelites saw that Abimelech was dead, they all went home.

56 And so it was that God paid Abimelech back for the crime that he committed against his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 God also made the men of Shechem suffer for their wickedness, just as Jotham, Gideon's son, said they would when he cursed them.

Tola

10 After Abimelech's death Tola, the son of Puah and grandson of Dodo, came to free Israel. He was from the tribe of Issachar and lived at Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. He was Israel's leader for twenty-three years. Then he died and was buried at Shamir.

Jair

After Tola came Jair from Gilead. He led Israel for twenty-two years. He had thirty sons who rode thirty donkeys. They had thirty cities in the land of Gilead, which are still called the villages of Jair. Jair died and was buried at Kamon.

Jephthah

Once again the Israelites sinned against the Lord by worshiping the Baals and the Astartes, as well as the gods of Syria, of Sidon, of Moab, of Ammon, and of Philistia. They abandoned the Lord and stopped worshiping him. So the Lord became angry with the Israelites, and let the Philistines and the Ammonites conquer them. For eighteen years they oppressed and persecuted all the Israelites who lived in Amorite country east of the Jordan River in Gilead. The Ammonites even crossed the Jordan to fight the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim. Israel was in great distress.

10 Then the Israelites cried out to the Lord and said, “We have sinned against you, for we left you, our God, and worshiped the Baals.”

11 The Lord gave them this answer: “The Egyptians, the Amorites, the Ammonites, the Philistines, 12 the Sidonians, the Amalekites, and the Maonites oppressed you in the past, and you cried out to me. Did I not save you from them? 13 But you still left me and worshiped other gods, so I am not going to rescue you again. 14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them rescue you when you get in trouble.”

15 But the people of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned. Do whatever you like, but please, save us today.” 16 So they got rid of their foreign gods and worshiped the Lord; and he became troubled over Israel's distress.

17 Then the Ammonite army prepared for battle and camped in Gilead. The people of Israel came together and camped at Mizpah in Gilead. 18 There the people and the leaders of the Israelite tribes asked one another, “Who will lead the fight against the Ammonites? Whoever does will be the leader of everyone in Gilead.”

Footnotes:

  1. Judges 9:29 One ancient translation I would tell; Hebrew He told.
  2. Judges 9:31 Probable text Arumah; Hebrew unclear.

Cross references:

  1. Judges 9:53 : 2Sam 11:21
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Luke 24:13-53

The Walk to Emmaus(A)

13 On that same day two of Jesus' followers were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and they were talking to each other about all the things that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed, Jesus himself drew near and walked along with them; 16 they saw him, but somehow did not recognize him. 17 Jesus said to them, “What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?”

They stood still, with sad faces. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn't know the things that have been happening there these last few days?”

19 “What things?” he asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered. “This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything he said and did. 20 Our chief priests and rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and he was crucified. 21 And we had hoped that he would be the one who was going to set Israel free! Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened. 22 Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb, 23 but could not find his body. They came back saying they had seen a vision of angels who told them that he is alive. 24 Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see him.”

25 Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! 26 Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?” 27 And Jesus explained to them what was said about himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

28 As they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther; 29 but they held him back, saying, “Stay with us; the day is almost over and it is getting dark.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 He sat down to eat with them, took the bread, and said the blessing; then he broke the bread and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Wasn't it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

33 They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven disciples gathered together with the others 34 and saying, “The Lord is risen indeed! He has appeared to Simon!”

35 The two then explained to them what had happened on the road, and how they had recognized the Lord when he broke the bread.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples(B)

36 While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”[a]

37 They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost. 38 But he said to them, “Why are you alarmed? Why are these doubts coming up in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself. Feel me, and you will know, for a ghost doesn't have flesh and bones, as you can see I have.”

40 He said this and showed them his hands and his feet.[b] 41 They still could not believe, they were so full of joy and wonder; so he asked them, “Do you have anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of cooked fish, 43 which he took and ate in their presence.

44 Then he said to them, “These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you: everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true.”

45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “This is what is written: the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later, 47 and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 (C)And I myself will send upon you what my Father has promised. But you must wait in the city until the power from above comes down upon you.”

Jesus Is Taken Up to Heaven(D)

50 (E)Then he led them out of the city as far as Bethany, where he raised his hands and blessed them. 51 (F)As he was blessing them, he departed from them and was taken up into heaven.[c] 52 They worshiped him and went back into Jerusalem, filled with great joy, 53 and spent all their time in the Temple giving thanks to God.

Footnotes:

  1. Luke 24:36 Some manuscripts do not have and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
  2. Luke 24:40 Some manuscripts do not have verse 40.
  3. Luke 24:51 Some manuscripts do not have and was taken up into heaven.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Psalm 100

A Hymn of Praise[a]

100 Sing to the Lord, all the world!
Worship the Lord with joy;
come before him with happy songs!

Acknowledge that the Lord is God.
He made us, and we belong to him;
we are his people, we are his flock.

Enter the Temple gates with thanksgiving;
go into its courts with praise.
Give thanks to him and praise him.

(A)The Lord is good;
his love is eternal
and his faithfulness lasts forever.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 100:1 HEBREW TITLE: A psalm of thanksgiving.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Proverbs 14:11-12

11 A good person's house will still be standing after an evildoer's house has been destroyed.

12 (A)What you think is the right road may lead to death.

Cross references:

  1. Proverbs 14:12 : Prov 16:25
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Friday April 28, 2023 (NIV)

Judges 8:18-9:21

18 Then Gideon asked Zebah and Zalmunna, “What about the men you killed at Tabor?”

They answered, “They looked like you—every one of them like the son of a king.”

19 Gideon said, “They were my brothers, my own mother's sons. I solemnly swear that if you had not killed them, I would not kill you.” 20 Then he said to Jether, his oldest son, “Go ahead, kill them!” But the boy did not draw his sword. He hesitated, because he was still only a boy.

21 Then Zebah and Zalmunna said to Gideon, “Come on, kill us yourself. It takes a man to do a man's job.” So Gideon killed them and took the ornaments that were on the necks of their camels.

22 After that, the Israelites said to Gideon, “Be our ruler—you and your descendants after you. You have saved us from the Midianites.”

23 Gideon answered, “I will not be your ruler, nor will my son. The Lord will be your ruler.” 24 But he went on to say, “Let me ask one thing of you. Every one of you give me the earrings you took.” (The Midianites, like other desert people, wore gold earrings.)

25 The people answered, “We'll be glad to give them to you.” They spread out a cloth, and everyone put on it the earrings that he had taken. 26 The gold earrings that Gideon got weighed over forty pounds, and this did not include the ornaments, necklaces, and purple clothes that the kings of Midian wore, nor the collars that were around the necks of their camels. 27 Gideon made an idol from the gold and put it in his hometown, Ophrah. All the Israelites abandoned God and went there to worship the idol. It was a trap for Gideon and his family.

28 So Midian was defeated by the Israelites and was no longer a threat. The land was at peace for forty years, until Gideon died.

The Death of Gideon

29 Gideon went back to his own home and lived there. 30 He had seventy sons, because he had many wives. 31 He also had a concubine in Shechem; she bore him a son, and he named him Abimelech. 32 Gideon son of Joash died at a ripe old age and was buried in the tomb of his father Joash, at Ophrah, the town of the clan of Abiezer.

33 After Gideon's death the people of Israel were unfaithful to God again and worshiped the Baals. They made Baal-of-the-Covenant their god, 34 and no longer served the Lord their God, who had saved them from all their enemies around them. 35 They were not grateful to the family of Gideon for all the good that he had done for Israel.

Abimelech

Gideon's son Abimelech went to the town of Shechem, where all his mother's relatives lived, and told them to ask the men of Shechem, “Which would you prefer? To have all seventy of Gideon's sons govern you or to have just one man? Remember that Abimelech is your own flesh and blood.” His mother's relatives talked to the men of Shechem about this for him, and the men of Shechem decided to follow Abimelech because he was their relative. They gave him seventy pieces of silver from the temple of Baal-of-the-Covenant, and with this money he hired a bunch of worthless scoundrels to join him. He went to his father's house at Ophrah, and there on top of a single stone he killed his seventy brothers, Gideon's sons. But Jotham, Gideon's youngest son, hid and was not killed. Then all the men of Shechem and Bethmillo got together and went to the sacred oak tree at Shechem, where they made Abimelech king.

When Jotham heard about this, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim and shouted out to them, “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, and God may listen to you! Once upon a time the trees went out to choose a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’ The olive tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my oil, which is used to honor gods and human beings.’ 10 Then the trees said to the fig tree, ‘You come and be our king.’ 11 But the fig tree answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my good sweet fruit.’ 12 So the trees then said to the grapevine, ‘You come and be our king.’ 13 But the vine answered, ‘In order to govern you, I would have to stop producing my wine, that makes gods and human beings happy.’ 14 So then all the trees said to the thorn bush, ‘You come and be our king.’ 15 The thorn bush answered, ‘If you really want to make me your king, then come and take shelter in my shade. If you don't, fire will blaze out of my thorny branches and burn up the cedars of Lebanon.’

16 “Now then,” Jotham continued, “were you really honest and sincere when you made Abimelech king? Did you respect Gideon's memory and treat his family properly, as his actions deserved? 17 Remember that my father fought for you. He risked his life to save you from the Midianites. 18 But today you turned against my father's family. You killed his sons—seventy men on a single stone—and just because Abimelech, his son by his servant woman, is your relative, you have made him king of Shechem. 19 Now then, if what you did today to Gideon and his family was sincere and honest, then be happy with Abimelech and let him be happy with you. 20 But if not, may fire blaze out from Abimelech and burn up the men of Shechem and Bethmillo. May fire blaze out from the men of Shechem and Bethmillo and burn Abimelech up.” 21 Then because he was afraid of his brother Abimelech, Jotham ran away and went to live at Beer.

Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Luke 23:44-24:12

The Death of Jesus(A)

44-45 (B)It was about twelve o'clock when the sun stopped shining and darkness covered the whole country until three o'clock; and the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two. 46 (C)Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Father! In your hands I place my spirit!” He said this and died.

47 The army officer saw what had happened, and he praised God, saying, “Certainly he was a good man!”

48 When the people who had gathered there to watch the spectacle saw what happened, they all went back home, beating their breasts in sorrow. 49 (D)All those who knew Jesus personally, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance to watch.

The Burial of Jesus(E)

50-51 There was a man named Joseph from Arimathea, a town in Judea. He was a good and honorable man, who was waiting for the coming of the Kingdom of God. Although he was a member of the Council, he had not agreed with their decision and action. 52 He went into the presence of Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 53 Then he took the body down, wrapped it in a linen sheet, and placed it in a tomb which had been dug out of solid rock and which had never been used. 54 It was Friday, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

55 The women who had followed Jesus from Galilee went with Joseph and saw the tomb and how Jesus' body was placed in it. 56 (F)Then they went back home and prepared the spices and perfumes for the body.

On the Sabbath they rested, as the Law commanded.

The Resurrection(G)

24 Very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, carrying the spices they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, so they went in; but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. They stood there puzzled about this, when suddenly two men in bright shining clothes stood by them. Full of fear, the women bowed down to the ground, as the men said to them, “Why are you looking among the dead for one who is alive? (H)He is not here; he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, be crucified, and three days later rise to life.’”

Then the women remembered his words, returned from the tomb, and told all these things to the eleven disciples and all the rest. 10 The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James; they and the other women with them told these things to the apostles. 11 But the apostles thought that what the women said was nonsense, and they did not believe them. 12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; he bent down and saw the grave cloths but nothing else. Then he went back home amazed at what had happened.[a]

Footnotes:

  1. Luke 24:12 Some manuscripts do not have verse 12.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Psalm 99

God the Supreme King

99 (A)The Lord is king,
and the people tremble.
He sits on his throne above the winged creatures,
and the earth shakes.
The Lord is mighty in Zion;
he is supreme over all the nations.
Everyone will praise his great and majestic name.
Holy is he!

Mighty king,[a] you love what is right;
you have established justice in Israel;
you have brought righteousness and fairness.
Praise the Lord our God;
worship before his throne!
Holy is he!

Moses and Aaron were his priests,
and Samuel was one who prayed to him;
they called to the Lord, and he answered them.
(B)He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud;
they obeyed the laws and commands that he gave them.

O Lord, our God, you answered your people;
you showed them that you are a God who forgives,
even though you punished them for their sins.
Praise the Lord our God,
and worship at his sacred hill![b]
The Lord our God is holy.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 99:4 Probable text Mighty king; Hebrew The might of the king.
  2. Psalm 99:9 See 2.6.

Cross references:

  1. Psalm 99:1 : Exod 25:22
  2. Psalm 99:7 : Exod 33:9
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Proverbs 14:9-10

Foolish people don't care if they sin, but good people want to be forgiven.[a]

10 Your joy is your own; your bitterness is your own. No one can share them with you.

Footnotes:

  1. Proverbs 14:9 Verse 9 in Hebrew is unclear.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

04/27/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 7:1-8:17, Luke 23:13-43, Psalms 97:1-98:9, Proverbs 14:7-8

Today is the 27th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today and it is great to have a place to be together today and it’s wonderful that we can gather and take the next step forward together in our week and month and year in the Bible. And our steps have led us to where we are both in the Bible and in our lives, but as it relates to the steps that we’ve taken in the Bible together we have reached our way into the book of Judges now, from Genesis to Judges, and we are learning about the judges of Israel, and in particular, we are learning about the judge Gideon and we began Gideon’s story yesterday and we will continue. Today Judges chapter 7 verse one through eight verse 17.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Judges today and in the story of Gideon we begin to see just how counterintuitive this story is. Gideon had summoned the people together to go to battle against Midian and 32,000 people came. And maybe that was enough to give a good fight. I mean the way that the Bible describes the Midianites, they’re like a plague of locusts all over the…all over the valley floor. So, maybe 32,000 is formidable enough, but it was too many. It was too many for God. So, Gideon was told to tell everybody, like, look if you’re afraid…if you’re afraid of this…this battle that’s about to happen then go home and 22,000 people left. That…that’s a third of the people. And, so, Gideon’s left with his army of 10,000 people and now that’s not really…I mean if it was ever fair to begin with it’s not now. But 10,000 was still too many for the plan that the Lord was leading Gideon into. And we watched that army dwindled down to 300 people against a plague, a horde of people. And as we saw the story unfold, we found out that really to get things going nobody…nobody did a bunch of fighting. The 300 people came and positioned themselves around the camp and at the command they made a bunch of noise and shined their torches and shouted and screamed and it seemed like the camp was surrounded. And, so, the enemy army wakes up, gets up and they just start attacking. They feel like they’re being attacked, like they’re being overrun by the armies of Gideon, the armies of the Lord when there’s only 300 people making a bunch of noise. But they don’t know that. And, so, they start swinging their swords and they…they annihilate each other. And it’s at this point that the other tribes are invited to come into pursuit. Once again 300 people against this horde. They were in an impossible situation. And once again, we saw God do the work for them. And that broke the bonds of the Midianites over the Israelites, freed them from oppression and gave them freedom again. God simply isn’t afraid of impossible looking situations because nothing is impossible with the Lord.

And if we’re talking about impossible situations then we flip over into the gospel of Luke and we are at…we are at the portion in the passion narrative where Jesus is condemned to be executed by crucifixion. And then He is crucified. Jesus hanging there on this cross between heaven and earth in what looks like absolute and complete defeat when counterintuitively He is saving the world. God’s wisdom confounds the wisdom of man. It’s often counterintuitive to the ways of men. In fact, it’s often backward to the ways of men, which should let the ways of men know that they are bad. Those ways are backward. If we’re not following in the ways of the Lord then were going in the wrong direction and the ways of the Lord typically invite us to trust Him through faith, beyond what we can control.

Prayer:

Father once again, we invite You into that and we invite Holy Spirit that You would come and lead us into all truth. This is a very regular request because it is always necessary. And even in our readings today the faith necessary in Gideon’s story and…and the trust necessary in the passion story, we see counterintuitive ways and we see absolute faith and trust and utter dependence on You. That is what was modeled for us in what we read today. May we remember it as we go through this day and live it out in our own lives 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 I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Coming soon…

The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Thursday April 27, 2023 (NIV)

Judges 7:1-8:17

Gideon Defeats the Midianites

One day Gideon and all his men got up early and camped beside Harod Spring. The Midianite camp was in the valley to the north of them by Moreh Hill.

The Lord said to Gideon, “The men you have are too many for me to give them victory over the Midianites. They might think that they had won by themselves, and so give me no credit. (A)Announce to the people, ‘Anyone who is afraid should go back home, and we will stay here at Mount Gilead.’” So twenty-two thousand went back, but ten thousand stayed.

Then the Lord said to Gideon, “You still have too many men. Take them down to the water, and I will separate them for you there. If I tell you a man should go with you, he will go. If I tell you a man should not go with you, he will not go.” Gideon took the men down to the water, and the Lord told him, “Separate everyone who laps up the water with his tongue like a dog, from everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” There were three hundred men who scooped up water in their hands and lapped it; all the others got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “I will rescue you and give you victory over the Midianites with the three hundred men who lapped the water. Tell everyone else to go home.” So Gideon sent all the Israelites home, except the three hundred, who kept all the supplies and trumpets. The Midianite camp was below them in the valley.

That night the Lord commanded Gideon, “Get up and attack the camp; I am giving you victory over it. 10 But if you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah. 11 You will hear what they are saying, and then you will have the courage to attack.” So Gideon and his servant Purah went down to the edge of the enemy camp. 12 The Midianites, the Amalekites, and the desert tribesmen were spread out in the valley like a swarm of locusts, and they had as many camels as there are grains of sand on the seashore.

13 When Gideon arrived, he heard a man telling a friend about a dream. He was saying, “I dreamed that a loaf of barley bread rolled into our camp and hit a tent. The tent collapsed and lay flat on the ground.”

14 His friend replied, “It's the sword of the Israelite, Gideon son of Joash! It can't mean anything else! God has given him victory over Midian and our whole army!”

15 When Gideon heard about the man's dream and what it meant, he fell to his knees and worshiped the Lord. Then he went back to the Israelite camp and said, “Get up! The Lord is giving you victory over the Midianite army!” 16 He divided his three hundred men into three groups and gave each man a trumpet and a jar with a torch inside it. 17 He told them, “When I get to the edge of the camp, watch me, and do what I do. 18 When my group and I blow our trumpets, then you blow yours all around the camp and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon!’”

19 Gideon and his one hundred men came to the edge of the camp a while before midnight, just after the guard had been changed. Then they blew the trumpets and broke the jars they were holding, 20 and the other two groups did the same. They all held the torches in their left hands, the trumpets in their right, and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” 21 Every man stood in his place around the camp, and the whole enemy army ran away yelling. 22 While Gideon's men were blowing their trumpets, the Lord made the enemy troops attack each other with their swords. They ran toward Zarethan as far as Beth Shittah, as far as the town of Abel Meholah near Tabbath.

23 Then men from the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and both parts of Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. 24 Gideon sent messengers through all the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down and fight the Midianites. Hold the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah, to keep the Midianites from crossing them.” The men of Ephraim were called together, and they held the Jordan River and the streams as far as Bethbarah. 25 They captured the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb; they killed Oreb at Oreb Rock, and Zeeb at the Winepress of Zeeb. They continued to pursue the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was now east of the Jordan.

The Final Defeat of the Midianites

Then the people of Ephraim said to Gideon, “Why didn't you call us when you went to fight the Midianites? Why did you treat us like this?” They complained bitterly about it.

But he told them, “What I was able to do is nothing compared with what you have done. Even the little that you people of Ephraim did is worth more than what my whole clan has done. (B)After all, through the power of God you killed the two Midianite chiefs, Oreb and Zeeb. What have I done to compare with that?” When he said this, they were no longer so angry.

By this time Gideon and his three hundred men had come to the Jordan River and had crossed it. They were exhausted, but were still pursuing the enemy. When they arrived at Sukkoth, he said to the men of the town, “Please give my men some loaves of bread. They are exhausted, and I am chasing Zebah and Zalmunna, the Midianite kings.”

But the leaders of Sukkoth said, “Why should we give your army any food? You haven't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet.”

So Gideon said, “All right! When the Lord has handed Zebah and Zalmunna over to me, I will beat you with thorns and briers from the desert!” Gideon went on to Penuel and made the same request of the people there, but the men of Penuel gave the same answer as the men of Sukkoth. So he said to them, “I am going to come back safe and sound, and when I do, I will tear this tower down!”

10 Zebah and Zalmunna were at Karkor with their army. Of the whole army of desert tribesmen, only about 15,000 were left; 120,000 soldiers had been killed. 11 Gideon went on the road along the edge of the desert, east of Nobah and Jogbehah, and attacked the army by surprise. 12 The two Midianite kings, Zebah and Zalmunna, ran away, but he pursued them and captured them, and caused their whole army to panic.

13 When Gideon was returning from the battle by way of Heres Pass, 14 he captured a young man from Sukkoth and questioned him. The young man wrote down for Gideon the names of the seventy-seven leading men of Sukkoth. 15 Then Gideon went to the men of Sukkoth and said, “Remember when you refused to help me? You said that you couldn't give any food to my exhausted army because I hadn't captured Zebah and Zalmunna yet. Well, here they are!” 16 He then took thorns and briers from the desert and used them to punish the leaders of Sukkoth. 17 He also tore down the tower at Penuel and killed the men of that city.

Cross references:

  1. Judges 7:3 : Deut 20:8
  2. Judges 8:3 : Ps 83:11
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Luke 23:13-43

Jesus Is Sentenced to Death(A)

13 Pilate called together the chief priests, the leaders, and the people, 14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me and said that he was misleading the people. Now, I have examined him here in your presence, and I have not found him guilty of any of the crimes you accuse him of. 15 Nor did Herod find him guilty, for he sent him back to us. There is nothing this man has done to deserve death. 16 So I will have him whipped and let him go.” 17 [a]

18 The whole crowd cried out, “Kill him! Set Barabbas free for us!” (19 Barabbas had been put in prison for a riot that had taken place in the city, and for murder.)

20 Pilate wanted to set Jesus free, so he appealed to the crowd again. 21 But they shouted back, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

22 Pilate said to them the third time, “But what crime has he committed? I cannot find anything he has done to deserve death! I will have him whipped and set him free.”

23 But they kept on shouting at the top of their voices that Jesus should be crucified, and finally their shouting succeeded. 24 So Pilate passed the sentence on Jesus that they were asking for. 25 He set free the man they wanted, the one who had been put in prison for riot and murder, and he handed Jesus over for them to do as they wished.

Jesus Is Crucified(B)

26 The soldiers led Jesus away, and as they were going, they met a man from Cyrene named Simon who was coming into the city from the country. They seized him, put the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.

27 A large crowd of people followed him; among them were some women who were weeping and wailing for him. 28 Jesus turned to them and said, “Women of Jerusalem! Don't cry for me, but for yourselves and your children. 29 For the days are coming when people will say, ‘How lucky are the women who never had children, who never bore babies, who never nursed them!’ 30 (C)That will be the time when people will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Hide us!’ 31 For if such things as these are done when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two other men, both of them criminals, were also led out to be put to death with Jesus. 33 When they came to the place called “The Skull,” they crucified Jesus there, and the two criminals, one on his right and the other on his left. 34 (D)Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing.”[b]

They divided his clothes among themselves by throwing dice. 35 (E)The people stood there watching while the Jewish leaders made fun of him: “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah whom God has chosen!”

36 (F)The soldiers also made fun of him: they came up to him and offered him cheap wine, 37 and said, “Save yourself if you are the king of the Jews!”

38 Above him were written these words: “This is the King of the Jews.”

39 One of the criminals hanging there hurled insults at him: “Aren't you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

40 The other one, however, rebuked him, saying, “Don't you fear God? You received the same sentence he did. 41 Ours, however, is only right, because we are getting what we deserve for what we did; but he has done no wrong.” 42 And he said to Jesus, “Remember me, Jesus, when you come as King!”

43 Jesus said to him, “I promise you that today you will be in Paradise with me.”

Footnotes:

  1. Luke 23:17 Some manuscripts add verse 17: At every Passover Festival Pilate had to set free one prisoner for them (see Mk 15.6).
  2. Luke 23:34 Some manuscripts do not have Jesus said, “Forgive them, Father! They don't know what they are doing.”
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Psalm 97-98

God the Supreme Ruler

97 The Lord is king! Earth, be glad!
Rejoice, you islands of the seas!
Clouds and darkness surround him;
he rules with righteousness and justice.
Fire goes in front of him
and burns up his enemies around him.
His lightning lights up the world;
the earth sees it and trembles.
The hills melt like wax before the Lord,
before the Lord of all the earth.
The heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all the nations see his glory.

Everyone who worships idols is put to shame;
all the gods bow down[a] before the Lord.
The people of Zion are glad,
and the cities of Judah rejoice
because of your judgments, O Lord.
Lord Almighty, you are ruler of all the earth;
you are much greater than all the gods.

10 The Lord loves those who hate evil;[b]
he protects the lives of his people;
he rescues them from the power of the wicked.
11 Light shines on the righteous,
and gladness on the good.
12 All you that are righteous be glad
because of what the Lord has done!
Remember what the holy God has done,
and give thanks to him.

God the Ruler of the World[c]

98 Sing a new song to the Lord;
he has done wonderful things!
By his own power and holy strength
he has won the victory.
The Lord announced his victory;
he made his saving power known to the nations.
He kept his promise to the people of Israel
with loyalty and constant love for them.
All people everywhere have seen the victory of our God.

Sing for joy to the Lord, all the earth;
praise him with songs and shouts of joy!
Sing praises to the Lord!
Play music on the harps!
Blow trumpets and horns,
and shout for joy to the Lord, our king.

Roar, sea, and every creature in you;
sing, earth, and all who live on you!
Clap your hands, you rivers;
you hills, sing together with joy before the Lord,
because he comes to rule the earth.
He will rule the peoples of the world
with justice and fairness.

Footnotes:

  1. Psalm 97:7 all the gods bow down; or bow down, all gods.
  2. Psalm 97:10 Probable text The Lord loves those who hate evil; Hebrew Hate evil, you who love the Lord.
  3. Psalm 98:1 HEBREW TITLE: A psalm.
Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Proverbs 14:7-8

Stay away from foolish people; they have nothing to teach you.

Why is a clever person wise? Because he knows what to do. Why is a stupid person foolish? Because he only thinks he knows.

Good News Translation (GNT)

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

4/26/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 6:1-40, Luke 22:54-23:12, Psalm 95:1-96:13, Proverbs 14:5-6

Today is the 26th day of April, welcome to the Daily audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you as we launch ourselves into another day together, and the next step forward together, which will lead us back into the Book of Judges. We talked about the Judge Deborah yesterday and Jael, a couple of valiant women in the story of ancient Israel. And we’ll just keep moving forward because as we move through the Book of Judges, we are not only seeing the back-and-forth seesaw thing that’s happening in Israel where they return to God when they’re in trouble and then God sets them free, raises up a judge and sets them free and they have peace, and then they wander away again. It’s like this back and forth and back and forth. But as we’re watching that, we’re also meeting all of these judges who led Israel between the time of Joshua and the time of Israel’s first king. Today, we will meet another one of Israel’s judges. We’ll spend more time on this one. This story kind of unfolds. This is a judge named Gideon, and today we will read Judges chapter 6.

Commentary:

Okay, so, in the book of Judges we met Gideon today and what is beginning to unfold is one of the most counterintuitive stories that we will encounter in the Old Testament, which has a number of counterintuitive stories in it. The way God is going to deliver Israel from Midian is, it shouldn’t work but it does. But as we met Gideon, we saw that once again the children of Israel had strayed away. Once again, things have gotten really difficult for the children of Israel. They had come under the power of another nation. They’re abandoning of God had given them to into the hands of the Midianites who were oppressing them severely, very severely. So, the children of Israel would go out into their fertile land and sew their crops to sustain their lives and the Midianites, and the Amalekites would come like, in caravans like a horde, like a plague, like a locust, like a plague of locusts. They would descend upon the land and set up their tents and pillage the crops and feast, and destroy what was left, leaving the children of Israel, starving and in extreme poverty. And the way that Judges tells it to us, they were like hiding. They had to hide to eat, they had to hide in caves. They had to hide in wine presses. They had a hide just to kind of thresh the wheat that they could harvest. They would just try and get enough to survive, when they cried out to God. And that is how we met Gideon. He’s doing exactly that, threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress to stay hidden from the enemy, who are pillaging the land, and that is when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and told him that God was with him. It’s kind of at this point that we can begin to enter ourselves into this story and begin to watch our own lives as the story unfolds, because the angel of the Lord comes to Gideon and says the Lord is with you. And Gideon says like, this is an old story, this is thousands of years ago, but what Gideon responds, it sounds like it could be said today. “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are the miracles we were told about by our ancestors?” So often we do find ourselves in that kind of position. Why is this happening? Why is this happening to me? And once again, we see that, even though this is a very, very ancient story, the heart of the human, the heart of humanity and what it, what it longs for, and what it lusts for, and what it submits to, it’s the same thing. Like, we just have different technology and different clothing. So, Gideon asks what to him seems to be an obvious question, it seems to be something that he was thinking about. Why is this happening, where is God? Where is the God we were told about? Hasn’t the Lord abandoned us? The Lord responds to Gideon and what doesn’t happen to Gideon is a lightning bolt doesn’t come out of the sky and blast him for saying what’s in his heart to God. God responds to Gideon and says, go in the strength you have and deliver Israel from the grasp of Midian. I am sending you. And Gideon responds again, as we often do, with all of the excuses about why it’s not going to work. And any response that God gives to that, all the excuses is, I will be with you. And what else is there to say. If that is true, if God will be with us, than what cannot get accomplished? So let’s remember this when we feel like we are walking a path and trusting and it’s not working out the way that we expected, and we get exasperated and then we get frustrated and then we can bitter and then we’re like where is God? Why is this happening to me? I’m trying to be obedient. I’m trying to live out my calling. Let’s remember Gideon in those moments, and in particular, let’s remember God’s response to Gideon, go in the strength you have. I am sending you. I will be with you.

Prayer:

Father, we enter into that, it is so comforting and yet it can get so bleak that we can’t see what’s going on, and so we thank You for these examples in the Scriptures that allow us to realize we’re not the only ones facing any kind of difficulty that we have to endure. And as we will see in the story of Gideon, a victory was brought about delivering Your people in a way that could have only been You. May we trust in You and may that trust be our anchor. We don’t know what to do and what’s going on. Come, Holy Spirit, into this. Today, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

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dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is where you can find out what’s happening around here. And so, indeed do that. You can download the Daily Audio Bible app from the App Store that works with your device and put that in the palm of your hand. So, check it out. Check out different sections like the Community Section. This is where different links to social media outlets that we participate in are, it’s also the home of the Prayer Wall which is a resource for us here at the Daily Audio Bible where we can come and ask for prayer, tell our story, share our lives and receive comfort and encouragement from our brothers and sisters around the world. And so, that’s the Prayer Wall and that can be found in the Community Section as well.

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

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hey guys, it’s Sparky. Libby, I wanted to, from Australia, I wanted to go ahead and pray for you and all of the people that thing, that thing in their life that they can’t get rid of, you know. So, let’s all go ahead and pray for everybody that has that thing. Father, we ask You to relieve Libby. We ask that You take the memory of the problem and let her know that she is enough for You. Father, whatever is happened, whatever came upon that has beaten this lady down, Father, we ask You to remove that. Father, You said we are enough. You love us, You care for us. Father, we know that You hated to see her have to go through that. You hate to see us suffer, God. Father, we just ask for a complete forgiveness of the soul, that if somebody caused that to happen, Father, we just ask that You help Libby to forgive. Father, You just ask us to forgive. Father, You…You wanted the tax collector to be treated like a king, even though he was hated. Father, we just ask that You grant this permission to release this in her life and from it. In Christ name I pray. Amen. Love you guys, I pray for all of you all.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible listeners. This is Litta Lilly, formerly known as God’s Girl. I was calling to pray for Libby from Australia. Gosh, sweet girl, woo, how do I get through this? Your request for prayer just pierced my soul today. We are very much alike in what’s happened to us. As children, as a young infant, as a young adult, and even as a teenager, nothing good ever happened to me as well. And so, I totally understand how you feel, just the guilt of it all, and just Satan always wanting to get into your mind and make you feel like you’re less than. And the only moments that I have sometimes, as I’ve gotten older, are happy moments like my marriage, my children and now my children having their children. But at nighttime, it gets really horribly sad and hard for me. So, I was just going to encourage you to listen to Christian music all the time. Remember God’s promises. You are loved and adored by Him. So, when you listen to God’s love songs and music that really helps. And so, I thought I was hoping that I could just impart that to you and I’ll be praying for you. I just love you and I want you to know how much you are loved and adored by God and by all of us here in this community. So, I will keep praying for you and keep, just remember how much you are loved. You’re loved by all of us and God and we are His children. We are His great promise, so, never forget that.

Good morning, this is Elizabeth from Kentucky and I just finished listening to April 19’s prayer requests. And first of all, I would like to say thank you to Brian. Your commentary on today’s reading and how the Lord cried over Jerusalem was just amazing. And I know that’s a word that’s very overused but that’s, it just was spectacular. I’d also like to lift up and thank, not sure of her name but she said she’s from Georgia and California right now taking care of her 100-year-old mother, and that the wisdom that she had to pass on about not being in such a rush that you pass up an opportunity to be with a loved one. And I’d like to pray for Libby and Queensland, Australia and just let her know that I am praying for you and I can hear your heart break and I just want you to know that you are loved and cared for by all of us. And I’m running out of time so, dear Lord, Heavenly Father, I pray that You would help all these people who have requested prayer today and I…I consider it a great joy to be able to pray for you and love you all, my dear family. In Jesus name I pray.

Hello DABers, this is Rob, currently in Florida, just call me The Dude. Yeah, Becca’s message on the 20th of April today caused me to think about something that I hadn’t actually asked for help with. My mom passed two months ago, thereabouts and feels like I haven’t really had a chance to grieve. Just been dealing with the fallout from taking care of her affairs and then dealing with my siblings who are not people that I want to know outside of you know, my family. But I’m also entering retirement here and it’s been anything but relief of stress, trying to navigate my way through this, trying to figure things out moving forward. And I also have a big trip ahead of me to Nova Scotia from Florida here and I’ll be spending some time up there and so that’s another source of stress. So, I would appreciate your help in lifting me up in prayer. Thanks, bye.

Good morning, DAB family. It’s Abba’s Daughter, Saddie M. Today is Thursday, April 20th. And I want to call in and pray for a few folks. I’m very sorry I don’t remember usernames very well. But I wanted to pray for Prodigal and Becca. I know Becca, you just lost your mother, last week and that’s just so hard. And then Prodigal, I’m so happy you’re getting back with your relationship with God and back into the DAB family. We love you; we want you here. God wants you here. You have a place on this earth until God calls you home. He has not called you home yet so please stay with DAB, reach out, post on the Prayer Wall. Do whatever you need to do bud, we want you here. So, let's…let’s go to God with these dear DABers. Abba Father, we come before You today, humbly before Your throne. We come asking for Your protection, Your comfort, Your presence among both Becca and Prodigal, Lord. One lost a loved one, one is trying not to lose himself. And Abba Father, we…we just know that until You sound the trump to call us home, we are meant to be here. And so, God, I just ask that You remind Prodigal of that. And for Becca, just send Your presence. Same, send Your comforting angels, Abba. She needs You, her whole family needs You. We just pray for Your presence among that family. You are a God of comfort. You wipe every tear. So, please Abba, do that for them. In your matchless…

4/24/2023 DAB Transcript

Judges 4:1-5:31, Luke 22:35-53, Psalm 94:1-23, Proverbs 14:3-4

Today is the 24th day of a April, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together into the week, through the month, through the year together. And yesterday, we began the Book of Judges, we talked a little bit about that. And we’ll be continuing our journey through the several centuries that are involved in the Book of Judges. Today, Judges chapter 2 verse 10 through 3 verse 31.

Commentary:

Okay so, we have gotten ourselves into the Book of Judges now, and we began to meet some judges today. So, we heard of Othniel and Shamgar, and a bunch of time passed; Othneil 40 years after his leadership, Ehud eighty years after…after conquering and pushing back Moab. But we’re also seeing how quickly we have this back and forth pattern of falling away and returning, falling away and repenting, that…that really is, that really affects the entire story of the ancient Hebrew, the biblical Hebrew people. This isn’t the, we’ll see this going on the whole way, because as the generations emerge and live their lives and then give way to another emerging generation, that, we see that the culture is shifting away from what they learned in the wilderness, that they were utterly dependent upon God, and instead they did what was right in their own eyes, and according to the Bible, prostituted themselves with other gods, which invariably brings bad things and destructive things. And then they return to God, and God will not give up. And so, He raises up another leader for them. And we’ll watch this as we continue through the Book of Judges.

Now in Luke’s Gospel, we come to the point again, and I mentioned from the get-go, right, at the Book of Matthew, walking alongside Jesus and we’re now in the third of four Gospels. And so, we have come again to the passion of Jesus, His last days, and today, the last supper. And we watched Jesus, once again, break the bread and pass the cup and institute what we now know as the Eucharist, or…or the Lord’s communion, or the Lord’s Table. But let’s not miss again what’s going on here, because Jesus is telling His friends what’s going to happen. He breaks the bread, He passes the cup, He says this is my body given for you. And he tells that one of them will be a betrayer and will betray Him. And of course, that causes a discussion, because everybody wants know who it is. Is it me? Can’t be me. Is it them? And it can’t be, who is it? And that…that, that discussion that is essentially about who is the lowest one among us, who is the worst of us, turns into who is the greatest of us? This is happening at the Last Supper. This is happening around the Passover feast, the last meal Jesus will have. This is just a very, very short time before Jesus loses His freedom, which will happen later that night. And the discussion around the table is about who is the greatest of them all. Here Jesus had invested Himself, God had invested personally in the lives of these people and in the culture all around Him, revealing a totally different way of being in the world, but all the assumptions are on the Messiah and the cultural pressures. It blinded people, even Jesus closest friends. It’s just that this is still with us today, who gets to be the greatest? Who gets to jump up and down and be seen the most? Who gets the platform, who gets to be lifted up? And this is a big enough deal that Jesus, in His compassion, teaches His disciples, even in the moment where He knows like just mere hours and His freedom will be taken and they will all run away. But in response to being the greatest, Jesus revealed again that it’s an upside down world. It’s a backwards world that we’re living in. The way to be the greatest is not the way that the culture is telling us to be the greatest, and if this could just sink in. And so, Jesus tells His disciples, the kings of the Gentiles, Lord it over them, and those who have authority over them have themselves called benefactors. It is not to be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever is greatest among you should become like the youngest and whoever leads, like the one serving. For who is greater? The one at the table are the one serving? Isn’t it the one at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves. That is so different than the way the culture is set up. That is so different than even the Christian culture is set up. And yet, this is Christ, this is the Christ speaking these words, and we are Christian, followers of Jesus, but are we following Jesus in this. It might seem like not that big of a deal, but in humbling ourselves, in serving and loving in the face of evil, we are revealing God’s kingdom, that God’s kingdom has come to us, revealing what God has done for us. And if we’re all revealing that then we’re revealing God all over the world. So even though Jesus, I mean, I have no idea what would have been going through His mind. We get clues when He gets to the Garden of Gethsemane and starts to pray. We can see that He’s carrying incredible stress, incredible amounts of like, carrying the world on His shoulders. And yet, this was the important thing that He had to teach them, as they’re having their last meal together. And so, maybe we could let that sink in a little bit. We’re not gonna find meaning and fulfillment but just continually jumping up and down trying to be seen in this constant reaching for affirmation in our own greatness. Our own greatness, so that we can reflect and give glory to God, is how we think. But Jesus is saying, you want to show your greatness and reflect my glory, then be like me. Let’s give it some thought today.

Prayer:

And Jesus, and as we’re thinking about it now, we want this to linger. We want to be able to observe ourselves and see all these little worn pathways that we continually go down into the ruts of our lives and react to certain ways, in certain circumstances, never really thinking I’m here to bring the good news. I’m here to reveal God’s kingdom. I’m here to serve. And there really is no other, there is no more dramatic of a scene then you serving all the way to death and trusting and redeeming your people, of which we are one. Holy Spirit, come and help us to see these patterns in our lives that are not following the pathway of the Savior. We need you. We need to be transformed and we’re learning this lesson that we are utterly dependent upon You, and that is the safest place to be. So may we make You proud today, instead of spending this entire day and all of our energy trying to get affirmation and the pride of others. Come, Jesus, into this we ask, in Your precious name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com that is home base, it’s the website, it’s where you can find out what’s happening around here, and so do that. The Daily Audio Bible app will do that in the palm of your hand or on the nice display of your tablet, just search for Daily Audio Bible in the App Store that is connected to your device. And yeah, check out the different sections like the Community Section, there are links there to get connected on social media and the different channels that we participate in. So that’s a good place to kinda get announcements and stuff like that. Just keep tracking and there are number of groups to get connected in. And you can check all that out, all the different links for social media, that’s there in the Community Section. But also in the Community Section is the Prayer Wall, and the Prayer Wall lives there and it’s always there. And it’s always on, and so, no matter what’s happening, good or bad, like no matter what we’re facing, whether it’s just like the wind is that are back and were sailing or were really facing challenging times, this is a place we can go and share story and invite our brothers and sisters to come alongside and pray for us. It’s also a place that we can go and hear other people stories and give words of encouragement and prayers of encouragement to them, because I don’t know if you’ve noticed but life has its challenges and step-by-step day-by-day, we encounter those challenges. And it’s very encouraging to know we’re not alone. So be familiar with the Prayer Wall there in the Community Section.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if the mission that we share to bring the spoken word of God read fresh, every day, and offered freely to anyone who will listen, anywhere on this planet, any time of day or night, and to build community around that rhythm so that we know we’re not alone. If that brings life and good news and hope into your life then thank you deeply for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage a 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, that’s little red button up 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.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello DAB family, this is Dian from Florida and I want to pray for Susan in Colorado who requested prayer for and orphan child from Haiti, called John Love, who has been taken to a hospital in Port-au-Prince, due to severe condition and has been having seizures, was recently approved to be incubated and is at risk for cardiac arrest. Dear Heavenly Father, I come before You and I lift up John Love into Your hands, Lord Jesus. Father God, this child has suffered long. He suffered many, many years first because he didn’t have his family to come home to and has been an orphan. And then because he’s been through so much throughout his upbringing, up until this point. And now is battling this sickness that is causing him to have seizures and it may even bring him to a place of cardiac arrest. Lord God, we come against that in the name of Jesus. We pray Lord God, that You will have mercy, that You would have mercy on this child. Dear little John love, that You would bless him and heal him of his infirmities. Right now, in the name of Jesus, we cry out to You God, for John love. Lord, have mercy on this child. I pray that You have mercy on the region as well, that has gone through so much unrest and strife for so many years. I pray that there will be here in the land of Haiti also. In Jesus name we pray.

Hey DAB, this is Christie from Ohio. I have a prayer request for my best friends nephew Rafael or Raf for short. He’s only 22 years old, but he’s had such a hard life battling severe schizophrenia and bipolar. He is a believer but he’s really wrestling with his faith and is feeling resentful to God and his parents because his violent outbursts often get him sent to rehab. My friend and her family just visited him last night in rehab and he was at the worst state they’ve ever seen him. He threatened suicide if he had to stay there and admitted himself out and decided he’ll stay with other relatives, as he doesn’t want to see his immediate family. Please pray for him. He feels so broken and betrayed. And also, please pray for is broken hearted parents, they’re both godly Christians who would do anything for their son. And also, please pray for my friend. Her name is Sam. All of this is bringing up trauma because she lost a friend to suicide, although gone through different but similar things and she doesn’t want that to happen to her nephew. So, just please be with the Raf and his whole family during this really hard time. And please pray for healing too with…with him and all the things that he’s going through.

Hello my DAB family this Unwavering from North Carolina. I wanted to call in a prayer for those who are battling addiction, whether it’s alcoholism or drugs, pornography, too many Amazon boxes, whatever it is, is taking your eyes off the Lord. I just want to lift those things up right now. Oh, most Gracious Father, we thank You for Your grace, Your love, Your mercy and Your favor. We thank You, Father God, that You are the God of the breakthrough. You are the God of miracles. Father, there are those who are in bondage right now, who are seeking for a way out. Father, I lift them up to You right now, knowing that I have been there myself, where it looks so dark and bleak, where all I could turn to was the bottle, but thank You Jesus for sobriety. Thank You Jesus for a life of recovery. Thank You Jesus, that there are those who have walked these paths and know the way out through You. So, Father, I ask that You help those that are in bondage, to seek out or be sought out for help and intervention. Father, I look at those families and those children who are affected by this disease of addiction. Father, they don’t know what person they will receive at any given point. But Father, we know that Lord, that You are able to change hearts, transfer minds, turn crooked paths straight. So, Father, I lift those up to You right now in the bondage of addiction. Believing You for their recovery, their restoration back to You, that they will know a life where they will not need to depend on anyone or anything outside of You, God. We thank You, we honor You, we praise You, Father. Amen.

Good morning DABers. This is Mommies Little Rock from Arkansas. I just want to ask for prayer for our youth, our generation Z. I am, I work with a University. So, I work with college students and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and I just see the struggles that they are dealing with the 18, 19, 20-year-olds. I really feel that a lot of them are being just so spiritually attacked. That generation, they’re just so filled with anxiety and doubt and just so many things that we didn’t experience, when I was their age. And I just want us to really just pray for this generation, the generation Z’s, the 18, 19, 20-year-olds that are trying to find their way and many are turning away from God. Many don’t believe in the Lord. You know, they’re so smart and gifted and talented and I just feel that the enemy is trying to ruin their lives early, the suicide rate with those age groups are so enormously high. And I just ask that we all just pray for them because they are our future and I just feel like God has something great for that generation and the enemy is trying to attack it. And I see it every day and we just need to pray more for our youth, because they really are struggling and they are the ones that could possibly lead our country, our society back to God. So, I just ask that you join me in prayer as we continue on. I hope you guys are doing well. I’m doing fine just making my way through and I just love you all and I love the DAB family. Take care everyone. Till next time. Bye.

To Brian and all the Hardin Family, all the DABer Family. This is Libby from Texas and it’s April 17th.  I’m just calling to let you know that my son-in-law, Mark Bernstein, passed away Wednesday of last week. I thank you for your prayers as I pray for all of you, even those who don’t call in. I just ask that you pray with me. Lord Jesus, lift my daughter, Katie, and my grandson Duncan, into Your loving arms, close to Your heart and give them peace and strength and fortitude to endure the path of dealing with the death of Mark. I love you all so much and I thank you for your prayers. And Brian, I want to say, I listen to the Friday podcast when the song was played, Were You There. I wept. It touched my heart. I wish I could have been there with Jesus but I’m here with Him now. And I thank you, so much. Thank you all for your precious love and I love you all. Okay, thank you, until later. Bye.