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.