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:

dailyudiobible.com is home base, that is our website, and that’s where you can find out what’s going on around here. Alternatively you can download the Daily Audio Bible app and you can find that free from whatever app store works with your device and put it all in the palm of your hand. And, so, check that out. Check out the different sections.

Check out the Community section. This is where to get connected on social media. This is the home of the Prayer Wall where the Prayer Wall lives.

Check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop. There are a number of categories there, ranging from the Daily Audio Bible journal and things to write with all the way to Windfarm coffee that can be shipped to you fresh roasted right to your door. And, so, yeah, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop while you’re checking things out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. We’re a community because we show up every day. We’re a community because we’re in this 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 PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can at the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or there are number of numbers that you can call. In the Americas 877-942-4253 is the number to dial. If you are in the UK or Europe 44-20-3608-8078 is the number to dial. And if you are in Australia or that part of the world 61-3-8820-5459 is a number to call.

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…