Author: Daily Audio Bible Transcripts

Ezekiel 31:1-32:32, Hebrews 12:14-29, Psalms 113:1-114:8, Proverbs 27:18-20

Today is the 15^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you…I guess the dead center of this 11^th month of the year. And I suppose we should be taking some deep breaths here because it's…it’s about to get to the busy season of the year, isn’t it? But we’re out in front of that as we come to the conclusion of another one of our weeks together and we’ll finish strong like we always do. We’ve been reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week and the next step forward is back into the book of Ezekiel. Today we’ll read chapters 31 and 32.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a pretty good view of our faith and what happens in our faith as we follow the path, the narrow path that leads to life, as we follow the way of Jesus found in the book of Hebrews today. So, the author of Hebrews is saying, “look, everybody pursue peace with each other. This is what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to pursue holiness. If you don’t have that you’re not gonna see God. So, make sure you’re pursuing these things. Make sure nobody falls short of the grace of God and that the root of bitterness doesn’t spring up and defile the community”, right? “Make sure you are in this. Make sure there isn’t any immoral or irreverent person like Esau who sold his birthright in exchange for a single meal”, right? So, putting that in terms of the gospel, it’s like you can’t carry your faith around as if it’s disposable as if you could sell it all for something that you think is better. Like that’s not how this works. So, that’s the context, that’s what’s being said here. And he’s saying, “do all these things for a reason,” And this is where we have to again remind ourselves that Hebrews was written to Hebrews, right? So, the entire context and all of the imagery is a part of the Hebrew worldview. So, the author then takes us back to the mountain, in this case Mount Sinai where Moses met with God but God’s intention was to meet with his people but when he descended upon the mountain the people were afraid to hear directly from God so they sent Moses up on the mountain. And even Moses was trembling with fear. So, the writer of Hebrews is giving that imagery and saying that, “this is how we’ve looked at God, ever since, but we…that’s not how it is and that is most certainly not how it is anymore since God in the flesh in the person of Jesus, since God himself came to rescue us and institute a new covenant, that’s not how it is anymore. Instead…” and I’m quoting Hebrews here…“Instead, you have come to Mount Zion to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to the myriads of angels, a festive gathering, to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to a judge who is God of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which says better things than the blood of Abel.” Alright, so let’s just recount where we’re going here because it can…it can be complicated. The writer of Hebrews is saying, “live upright, live holy, be at peace with everyone. Don’t let immorality, don’t let irreverence, don’t let bitterness grow among you because you’re not living in fear of God like they did at Sinai. Now you can come right in, you belong”. And then he goes on, “see to it that you don’t reject the one who speaks for if those people back then in Zion didn’t escape when they rejected him and warned him on earth then nobody’s gonna get away when they’ve been warned from heaven. “His voice shook”…we’re quoting again…“His voice shook the earth at that time but now He has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. This expression “yet once more” indicates the removal of what can be shaken, that is, created things, so that what is not shaken might remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful.” So, let’s sum this up. There are postures that we’re supposed to live into that lead us to holiness because without it we won’t see God. In the past Moses went on Mount Sinai and everybody was terrified when they heard from God but now things have changed, and we can go boldly into the presence of God. However, God is about the business of revealing and installing His kingdom forever and ever and that will require that everything that can shake will be shaken so that only what is unshakable will remain. There is the context for life friends. All that can be shaken will be shaken so that all that remains is unshakable because we are inheriting an unshakable kingdom. So, I don’t know about you but there’s been some shaking going on in my world and in my life this year and I’ve…usually a few times now…usually have the where with all to embrace and invite God in to the shaking and saying, “I believe you are in this as uncomfortable as this might be.” And I’ve been shaken plenty of times in my life and I know that when all that can shake has been shaken off then all that’s left is what is true. So, maybe rather than the anger and the frustration and all of the associated emotions that go with that, that eventually get us shaking our fist at the heavens and being angry with God. Like maybe we need to reframe what’s happening here. We are being made unshakable and the only way that happens is that all that can shake has been shaken off.

Prayer:

Father we embrace what You are doing in our lives and we invite Your Holy Spirit to give us eyes to see and ears to hear, because so often when we face challenge, when things start shaking it’s uncomfortable and so we immediately label it bad or evil because it’s making us uncomfortable. We don’t take that beat and invite You to help us interpret the path we’re walking and what’s happening in our lives. So, we’re taking that moment now. Come, Holy Spirit. Help us to reinterpret the circumstances that are swirling around us. Certainly, we face obstacles because we create them because of the decisions that we make. But sometimes we face seasons where it feels like everything is shaking and we’re not really sure why and the longer that it lasts the more that we cling to things that You may be trying to shake loose. And, so, we’re working against You and getting frustrated and exhausted in the process. So, You have given us some eyes to see today, that this is what is going to happen. Until Your kingdom is fully established, all that can shake will be shaken. And, so, it’s hard to invite the shaking into our own lives because it’s inviting disruption and yet we are told by the author of Hebrews today that what we’re aiming for here is holiness, what we’re aiming for here is to live at peace. And, so, we invite You. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth as You’ve promised and as we believe. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that is home base. And as I…as I am in the habit of saying, that’s where you find what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected in any way that you can.

Visit the Community section where you can find all the different social media links. That’s a way to stay connected. The Prayer Wall is there. That’s a way to stay connected. So, check those out.  

The Daily Audio Bible Shop lives at dailyaudiobible.com as well where resources for this journey are available, including our…our latest. It’s entitled the God of Your Story and it’s a 365-day devotional kind of…a written form of the journey that we take through the Scriptures each and every day here at Daily Audio Bible, so a fantastic companion. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage, and I thank you humbly and profoundly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment you can hit the Hotline button in the app 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:

Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Lola coming to you from East Asia. I don’t really call in very often but there’s a huge need in my community here right now. There’s another teacher, I’ve never actually met her, she doesn’t even teach at this place where I am, but she is dying of cancer. She…at this point she wouldn’t even make it to the airport to fly back to the US. She does not know the Lord and she is terrified. She’s dying in a place that’s not her home. Her family isn’t here, and she doesn’t know God. There…the women here at my community have been pitching in. Most of us have never met her before but we are going to the hospital so that we shall have people who speak English with her as she’s dying. But what we really need is…she needs to be lifted up so that she’ll know the Lord before she passes away. And I also…we also…I haven’t been helping much…but we need prayer for the women here in my community who are volunteering to just go and be with her. They are exhausted. So, if you could pray for that that would be wonderful.

Good morning this is Valerie from South of at Atlanta. I just wanted to call and share my heart a little bit. I find that I’m growing cynical. It’s like I just feel myself getting cold and a little bit cynical with the Lord and I don’t want to be that way and I don’t quite know what…where it’s coming from, but I do know that I need a new church home. I know that I need to surround myself with other Christians, especially Christian women that are entering into the older phase of their life. So, I ask for prayer that God will direct me and the path that I need to go. But in order for me to combat the cynicism I think that I really need to just start praying more. So, it’s going to be my goal to start calling in much more frequently and praying for the DABbers and lifting others up to God in the hope that my heart will become tender and more compassionate. So, I want to pray for Abigail right now who had found that she has cancer spots on her lungs, and she’s gone through so much already. And then to have this diagnosis, I can’t I just can’t imagine the feeling of defeat. So, I want to pray for her, and I want to pray for Janet who had her bad test results. And Janet please know that I’m praying for you. I’m praying that God will work in that situation. And I also want to pray for Sandy who had the stroke. And I’m running out of time, so I want to mention Mark who has COPD. So, I’m praying for the four of you today. You will be on my heart constantly. God bless everybody. Have a blessed day.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible readers, family, I’m calling to lift up a few of the dampers from listening to the November 11^th podcast. This is Brave from New Jersey. I’m calling for Janice from the UK concerning your friend who is currently in very…a lot of difficulties, about to lose his house or apartment and he has lung cancer, he has to find out if you can go back to work after reassessment. We want to lift up your friend Janice from the UK that the Lord will visit him and as everything rushing into him as water the Lord says that although the flood brushes over us of water it will not overtake us. So, I trust God that he will not be overtaken, and our Lord will give him a reason to celebrate and know him. And as you’re lifting him up over the podcast here, you’re lifting up will not be in vain and it will receive a visitation of the Lord even where he is, and the Lord will visit Him in show him kindness. I also want to pray concerning Betsy from Michigan and her friend the teenager who is driven to the dark side that the Lord will visit her too, that the Lord will show his face to her and that also even in these dark days there will be a reason to celebrate and the Lord will be glorified. And finally, I want to pray for Dana in Arkansas and her three daughters recovering from PTSD from sexual assault. Lord, this prayer point hit hard to my heart because I have been a victim too and I pray that the Lord will truly restore their youth, restore everything concerning them.

Hi everybody it’s Margo in Liberia. I have a bit of a cold, so my voice is a bit different. I’m calling the old way. I phoned in a few times using the Hotline button but I’m not sure if mine is working so I’m trying my old way because I’d really like to connect with you guys. Just touching base letting you know I’m still here, I’m still listening, and I’m still praying for you all every day. And could you please keep me in your prayers. Don’t forget me over here in Liberia. We’re coming up to…well it’s been about six months that we’ve actually been in Liberia now and some things are getting easier. We are starting to adjust. It’s not an easy place to live. I’ve done lots and lots of volunteer work at the mission hospital which has been really fulfilling. However, it’s…it’s a big change for me and it’s…it’s very confronting and very challenging and just I need your prayers. I had my son come and visit which was amazing. He was here for a few weeks and he’s just left and him going seems to have just triggered in me the most piercing grief. It’s just not an easy life and sometimes the suffering is great. But at the same time, I love Jesus so much and it’s such a privilege and an honor to be doing what he’s called me to be…called me to do and called me to be. Anyway, time’s running out. I love you guys. Don’t forget me. I’ll talk again soon. Bye.

Ezekiel 29:1-30:26, Hebrews 11:32-12:13, Psalms 112:1-10, Proverbs 27:17

Today is the 14^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it’s great to be here with you as we move through the center of another of our weeks together and…well…frankly we’re moving through the center of the 11^th month of the year at the same time. So, yeah, we’re well into our journey but we still have so much yet in front of us. So, we will take the next step forward. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 29 and 30 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, this is our third today walking down what is known as the “hall of faith” in the book of Hebrews and it’s simply called that because it’s example after example after example, starting in the book of Genesis and working its way forward through the Hebrew Scriptures of…of people and stories that we have all encountered as we’ve moved through the Bible this year where faith was the irreplaceable thing. So, we concluded that hall of faith today in an interesting way because we concluded the book with people who had faith but did not see the promise fulfilled in their lifetime. So, we start in the beginning of the Scriptures and we worked our way forward seeing that faith is irreplaceable. Like, without faith it is impossible to please God and we saw God come through in those stories of faith, but they all faced considerable opposition, right? Like, they had to fight for it. And then today we get to people who were faithful and true and fought for it and died, hoping, hoping in faith. And then as the…as the writer of Hebrews concludes this hall the faith, basically what happens is a mic drop, a summary, a mic drop, a walk off the stage, basically, what else is there to say about walking the life of faith. And they say, “therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us.” What he’s referring to when he’s talking about this large cloud of witnesses is all of the examples we just walked through in the hall of faith. Their lives, their faith, their witness, their testimony, their story serves as an example, this is the path. So, the writer of Hebrews says, “so, since…since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.” And he’s using Jesus as this final example in the hall of faith. “For the joy that lay before him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right end of the throne of God.” That…that’s a pretty big mic drop moment as we’ve walked down the hall of faith and seen all these examples and realized really, it is impossible to please God without faith and really, it’s pretty much impossible to get anywhere without faith. So, since we have all of these examples, since we have this great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s walk the path. So, my brothers and sisters, listen, I mean, we’re well into our year and it’s been a heck of a year, at least it’s been a heck of a year for me. I’ve faced challenges I did not know were coming my way. And, yeah, I mean all kinds of things happen in a life in a year. So, we all have these stories and it’s so easy to come to get punched and knocked down and then think, “okay, well where is God” and just be discouraged. But since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, brothers and sisters let us lay aside every hindrance, all of them, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that keeps trapping us, that keeps tripping us, that keeps ensnaring us. Let’s stop those things. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us. In other words, we’re walking down this path of life. This is the road were on. Let’s run with endurance the race that we’re running, keeping our eyes on Jesus and not on anything else because all of the times that we turn our head to the right or the left and get distracted we end up in the ditch. Let’s keep our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith. And, as we’ve been told it’s impossible to please God without faith. And Jesus is the source and perfecter of our faith. So, let’s run this race and endure what comes, keeping our eyes on Jesus, knowing that our faith is being perfected and we are becoming pleasing to God. We know it’s impossible without faith to please God, but that means it’s possible to please God by faith and Jesus is the source and perfecter of our faith. So, let’s get up off of our buts. It’s time to stop sitting around in our own self-absorbed misery. Let’s get up since we have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let’s go.

Prayer:

Father we invite You into that because if we look at our lives, we can see when we’re faithless, we can see what happens when that tank is empty. We cannot please You. We cannot please anyone. And we have been given example after example after example in the Scriptures telling us flatly and frankly, faith is the activator, faith is the fuel of this story we are living. And, so, we keep our eyes on You Jesus. Running this race with endurance come what may our eyes are on You. You are perfecting our faith. And as the author of Hebrews goes on to tell us that You discipline those that You love, we submit to You. We believe that You want good for us. We believe that You want to reveal the narrow path that leads to life that very few find, and we will certainly not find it without faith. So, come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. We surrender to You and we pray these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, and that is home base for…for all of us here, around the global campfire. So, stay connected and stay tuned in any way that you can there.

The Prayer Wall lives at  dailyaudiobible.com. That is a fantastic resource to ask for prayer and to offer prayer for brothers and sisters around the world. So, be sure to check that out. In the same section, that’s the community section, you’ll find all the different links to the social media channels that we are involved in. So, stay connected that way as well. You can also get to the Prayer Wall using the Daily Audio Bible app by pressing the little drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. That’ll take you there.

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 to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm., if that has been life giving to you then thank you, thank you humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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, of course, if you have a prayer request or comment. There are a number of ways to reach out, you can press the Hotline button, the little red button in the app at the top or, if you are in the Americas you can dial 877-942-4253. If you are in the UK or Europe, you can dial 44-20-3608-8078 and if you are in Australia or that part of the world you can dial 61-3-8820-5459.

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

Ezekiel 27:1-28:26, Hebrews 11:17-31, Psalms 111:1-10, Proverbs 27:15-16

Today is the 13^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you on this 317^th day of the year, which is our 317^th day together as we’re making our way to the Scriptures this year. We’re continuing to work our way through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and the book of Hebrews in the New. And we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Today, Ezekiel chapters 27 and 28.

Commentary:

Alright. So, yesterday we were talking about what is known as the “hall of faith” found here in the book of Hebrews. And, so, we continued walking down that hall of faith in today’s reading. And, so, what we’ve done basically is begin in the book of Genesis and then the author of Hebrews begins to point out instances in the Hebrew Scriptures where faith was like the irreplaceable part of the story. And, so, we spent all of our time walking down those examples in today’s reading from the Old Testament, right? So, it was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice for God was testing him. It was by faith that Isaac promised blessings for the future of his sons, Jacob and Esau. It was by faith that Jacob when he was old and dying, blessed Joseph’s sons. It was by faith that Joseph when he was about to die talked about leaving Egypt. It was by faith that Moses parents hid him for three months when he was born. It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be identified with Pharaoh’s daughter. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. It was by faith that Moses commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover. It was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as they were on dry ground. It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days and the walls crashed down. It was by faith that Rahab the prostitute was not destroyed. So, you can see it was “by faith”, that phrase pounded over and over as we’re looking at the examples simply starting at the beginning of the Bible and working our way forward. This is because the author, the writer of Hebrews was pointing out something that had always been obvious but hadn’t been seen, hadn’t been understood in this context. And the larger point is the same point that the apostle Paul made in his writings, it was by faith that all of these things happened not by adherence to some sort of code or ethic. It was by faith. Faith was the component that…that changed all of the stories. Like today We worked from Genesis all the way to the book of Joshua and without faith all of the major characters and all of the major decisions of those stories that carry the narrative forward in the Bible wouldn’t have happened. Like what if this was the hall of disbelief that we were walking down and all of these people had the supreme opportunity to live by faith with God in covenant, but they chose not to, right? We would have…we would either not have the Bible or we would have a different Bible. And this is the point that’s being made. Like, faith is the key to our union with God and our awareness of the spiritual realms. Faith has always been the essential component of life with God. It still is. Nothing has changed there. Without faith we can’t please God. And in all of the examples that we read of today in the hall of faith, God responded to their faith. So, we’re talking about faith because we’re walking down this hall of faith, but we have to think about our own faith. We can certainly look and go, like, “He's…that’s right…that’s right…faith was the thing because all the way back to the beginning I can see that now.” But what about your faith? What about our faith right now? Because what we are putting our faith in is essentially what we are giving our hearts to in worship as if it were God, as if it were going to be able to bring us life. So, let’s think about it because that’s the point. That’s what the author of Hebrews is trying to show here. Where is your faith because without it you’re going nowhere? So, it would be a good thing to not lose it, and it would be a good thing to know where it is at all times. So, it comes down to, like, in whom, or in what have we put our faith? We see from the hall of faith with…that when people against all odds put their faith in God, God responds. That hasn’t changed. So, maybe we’re waiting for God to respond only to sit down and realize we do not have faith that He will and we have put our faith in someone or something else. Or maybe we put our faith in ourselves and we’ve gotta dig out of this. Maybe our faith is in the wrong place. Something to think about today.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit we invite You to help us think about that, to begin to unpack where is we’re putting our faith because it’s been made abundantly clear, we will never please You without faith. And, so, forgive us for all of the times that we’ve tried to navigate without it or that we’ve put our faith in something that can’t deliver, and given our hearts in worship to that thing or that person. Forgive us for these things. We see the foolishness of our ways. We place our faith, all of it…all of it…there is no plan B…all of it is in You and You alone. We invite You Holy Spirit to come into that. Show us all of the areas that we’ve placed our faith in other things. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home base, and certainly where you stay tuned and connected to what’s going on around here. So, be sure to do that.

Visit the Community section of the website. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives.

Visit the Daily Audio Bible Shop. That’s where resources like the God of Your Story can be found. If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com and I cannot thank you enough for your partnership as we continue this journey forward. There’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can press the Hotline button, the little red button in the top of the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Ezekiel 24:1-26:21, Hebrews 11:1-16, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 27:14

Today is the 12^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is a pleasure to be here with you today. As we come around the global campfire and…well…come in out of whatever’s going on and just set it aside and allow this to be a safe place for God’s word to wash into our lives and that will take us back into the book of Ezekiel as we continue that journey. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 24, 25 and 26 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we’ve been moving our way through the book of Hebrews, we’ve been seeing this argument and the implications of what’s being said laid out very meticulously. So…so, the implications of the good news or the gospel have become clear. Because of Jesus, who is our great and final high priest, through Him we can…we can, with boldness, enter God’s presence as a son or a daughter righteous before God. And, so, today we started talking about what it is that must be present in order for that to happen. Faith. So, like, just because we’re reading the book of Hebrews, like this is not the first time we’ve ever talked about faith. We’ve examined it from every angle because we’ve been reading the writings of the apostle Paul and this is a primary theme for him, but Hebrews gives us a definition and its famous and it’s memorable and it’s quotable, right? “Faith reveals the reality of what we’re hoping for. Faith itself is the evidence of what we can’t see.” So, in other words, faith lets us see a reality and begin moving into that reality and living in that reality even though it’s not reached its full completion. Faith gives substance to what is yet unseen. And it’s often that we’re praying for more faith, right? We hear it on a can annual basis, “increase my faith. I need more faith.” But if this is what faith is, if it is a substance of…of what we can’t see…a reality of what we hope for, then we have to understand that it’s baked into our experience as human beings. We are all living by faith because we all have faith in things we can’t see, right? So like…so like, we all probably have somebody in our lives that we love. Can you see it? Right? Can you see the love? You can’t. You can see the evidence of the love, you can see the implications of the love, the repercussions of the love, but you can’t see it. Or how about your next breath? You have faith that it’s going to come, so much so that you don’t even think about it. So, we’re exercising faith all of the time, every day, somehow. It’s a part of our experience, but when it comes to our spirituality and our union with God all the sudden it becomes some sort of different category. So, the writer of Hebrews isn’t trying to prove that faith is a real thing, that it actually exists. Who’s gonna argue with that? The point was, faith had always been a part of the Hebrew story and we have to remember, Hebrews is written from a Hebrew context to Hebrews and this had always been a part of their story, in fact this had always been essential to the story. Faith, as Paul so constantly laid out, came before any law, before any ritual, before any behavior, before any tabernacle, before any temple. Faith was the beginning of the story. It’s the centerpiece. It’s the cornerstone. And making that point is very, very important to the writer of Hebrews because they lead us down a path that we have begun to walk today and will continue to walk over the next couple days. It’s famously known as “the hall of faith”, right? Because the writer of Hebrews is showing this point to be true - all of these famous important characters found in the Hebrew Scriptures, the Old Testament - all of their stories could not have happened without faith, right? It was my faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain. It was my faith that Enoch was taken into heaven without dying. It was by faith Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. It was my faith that Abraham obeyed God when God called him to leave his home and go somewhere he didn’t even know. He went even though he didn’t know where he was going. It was by faith Sarah had a child even though she was too old to have children and through that child this promise has been brought to fruition. The people are like the sand on the seashore. So, we see what’s happening here. The author of Hebrews is simply going back to the beginning, back to Genesis, and started working forward through the stories that are there, revealing that faith is the thing that activated the stories. Faith is the essential piece. But why? Like, why was the apostle Paul pounding this theme home throughout his writings? And why is the author of Hebrews pounding this home almost to the point of redundancy? It’s because the people, in order to accept, in order to see the revelation that a new covenant with God through Jesus was being offered, the only way that anyone could have participated, could’ve come into that covenantal relationship was going to be by and through faith. It would take faith to enter into that relationship and that is no less true today. So, as we read these stories starting with Genesis and continue walking down this hall of faith, we…these are…these were not the exceptions to the rule. They’re simply a list of people that serve as the examples for everybody, including you, and including me. Faith activated their story and we’re not gonns get anywhere without faith in our story. I mean, the writer of Hebrews put it clearly, “it is impossible to please God without faith.” So, that leaves us with an understanding that we probably already had, but it puts it really front and center because now we have to think, “where is my faith?” Right “What have I put my faith in?” Like, when I leave this little oasis around this global campfire and I have to go back out into that world and complete my day. “What have I put my faith in?”

Prayer:

Holy Spirit, we invite You into that question. Sometimes it’s those sorts of questions, they’re just simple, and they seem easy enough to answer until we sit with them and realize that You have begun to unravel us, that You begin to peel back the layers, that You are after things inside of us that are keeping us in fear and doubt and not faith. And, so, reveal those things to us. We open ourselves to You completely and fully declaring nothing is off-limits here. Nothing is off limits to You. We trust You, we love You and we believe that it is our good, that it is our freedom, that it is our sanctification that You are after, and we are after that to. And, so, we collaborate, we surrender. Come, Holy Spirit show us the places throughout the rest of this day that we’ve put our faith in things that aren’t You, and that can’t deliver. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is the website, of course, where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay connected.

The Daily Audio Bible Shop lives there and there are resources available for the journey that we are on. The entire Global Campfire line is at the Shop as well as the God of Your Story, a brand-new resource that’s just…just been released which is…which is essentially a devotional…365 day devotional book that goes through the Bible and talks about the kinds of things that we talk about here every single day. And, so, it is a fantastic companion, a wonderful resource. And I’ve mentioned on a number of occasions, it is my prayer that everyone…everyone in this community has this tangible representation of who we are together as a community at the Daily Audio Bible. And, of course, all of the proceeds from the sale of the God of Your Story through the Daily Audio Bible Shop, all of the proceeds from the sale of the God of Your Story go to support the efforts of the Daily Audio Bible in our ongoing mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen to it anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to keep building community around that rhythm so that we know we’re not on this journey alone. So, thank you for your free support of the God of Your Story. That’s available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it lives on the homepage and I thank you profoundly…profoundly for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible 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 that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Ezekiel 23:1-49, Hebrews 10:18-39, Psalms 109:1-31, Proverbs 27:13

Today is the 11^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian and it is, of course, great to be here with you as we take this next step forward in the Scriptures this year. And as we get our work we going we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Ezekiel chapter 23 today.

Commentary:

Okay. So, let’s just…let’s just reread a passage from our reading in Ezekiel today. “Yet she multiplied her acts of promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth when she acted like a prostitute in the land of Egypt and lusted after her lovers whose sexual members were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. So, you revisited the depravity of your youth when the Egyptians caressed your nipples to enjoy your youthful breasts.” So, are we all paying attention here? Like is everyone paying attention right now, because that was sort of the point? So, I mean Ezekiel chapter 23 is one of the most graphic portions in the Scriptures, and pretty much not a year goes by that I don’t get a bunch of emails, like “I don’t why…what’s this doing in the Bible” kind of questions. And I guess the fundamental answer is because God said those things and they were written down by the prophet Ezekiel. So, I mean we can approach us a couple of ways. We can say, “ooo, I don’t like that kind of language being in my Bible. And, so, if God said it…well…I have a weird feeling about God. And yet as graphic as it might be, God is simply saying this is where you will end up if you do that. Or we could say, “what is going on here? Why is God choosing this particular imagery and memorializing it for all time in the Scriptures? If we simply go back and we remember the story of the baby girl lying in her blood left abandoned to die and then God shows up and says, “live”, and cares for her and meets her every need and she grows up to be beautiful and marries Him and they have children together that she then sacrifices and that she then abandons the Lord in favor of adulterous relationships with anyone that she can find, well then when we get to this kind of language in the 23^rd chapter of Ezekiel it starts all making sense. God had entered into an exclusive covenantal relationship, the bonds of which were as powerful, if not more powerful than marriage itself because this is the language God chose to use and his vision was for an exclusive family, His family, set apart and made holy. And He offered painstakingly the parameters of what that would look like. If they would obey and live within that covenantal relationship as a people before their God, then there was nothing that they couldn’t do that the entire world would be blessed because of them. And yet their story, and we have read so much of this story by now that we know this by heart, they won’t be faithful, they won’t stay true. And God sends prophet after profit saying, “like this is what you need to do. You need to return to me. You need to come home.” Finally, in the book of Ezekiel we get it, like full force, “this is what you are doing. You are inviting mixture. You are inviting all of these foreign lovers into our exclusive covenantal relationship. Your lust for other lovers is making you this gusting. Can’t you see how far you have fallen. You are sacrificing my children born in this exclusive covenantal relationship, these children who are set apart to me, these children that are holy, you are sacrificing them to fall God’s. Do you not see what you are doing?” Well, understanding this helps us understand why God is being sold graphic. Because we’re reading this, and we can be off put by it, but we certainly understand what’s being said here. Okay. So, if we can wrap our minds around what’s being said here and go, “okay. Alright. I…I see…I see that my heavenly Father…I see that the Lord here is exasperated and brokenhearted even. Sad, even. Jealous, even”, which He says He is on a number of occasions. So, we can get our minds around this and say, okay, I see what they…what they were doing but I wouldn’t think of sacrificing one of my children to an idol. So, that’s not me.” And yet really the point isn’t so much all of the things that they were doing. Those were the repercussions of the path they had chosen. It was the mixture, inviting other lovers into a covenantal relationship. And that can hit home pretty quickly. I mean we can say, “well I’m not committing adultery. I’m…like I’m faithful to my spouse.” Awesome. Awesome. Me too. We’re all supposed to be. But are we being faithful to God? And I’m not sure I need to like come up with a bunch of examples. I think we can just leave it there. This, what we have been reading is what unfaithfulness looks like, where it leads, how God feels about it, what it does to his heart. I mean, I’m a man, so I can process this from a male perspective and say that when God talks about other men fondling the one He loves, I don’t like the thought of that. I don’t think any of us do. And what God’s talking about here is those who are actually seeking these kind of adulterous relationships, those who are looking outside of a covenantal relationship to find some sort of life that they think is gonna make them more happy. And if will sit with it, if we’ll go into this, and the Bible offers us all kinds of opportunities just to go into places that we don’t necessarily want to examine. But if we’ll sit with us today with the imagery, with the starkness of it all and consider ourselves in the story then we may find we’ve been flirting with destruction in one way or another and it’s heartbreaking and it’s supposed to be. And maybe it’s time to stop.

Prayer:

Father we invite Your Holy Spirit into that. It’s a convicting thing so it’s an uncomfortable thing. And yet You…You have proven in the Scriptures that You…You don’t have a problem making us uncomfortable. If it’s an attempt to free us, to give us freedom, You don’t mind breaking through these uncomfortabilities. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to show us places that we have chased other lovers, the places that we have broken faith with You. We repent. It’s so starkly on the page before us that we…we see it makes us uncomfortable as it’s supposed too. And, so, we’re facing it. Come Holy Spirit. Convict us of the places that we…that we are chasing life outside of You. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website and it’s definitely how you stay connected and stay tuned to what’s happening around here and in the community. So, be sure to do that. Be sure to stay connected.

The Prayer Wall is at dailyaudiobible.com and it is a fantastic, always on, resource to ask for and to offer prayer.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at the website as well. There’s a link that just lives on the homepage. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, you can press the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top and just start talking 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.

Ezekiel 21:1-22:31, Hebrews 10:1-17, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 27:12

Today is the 10^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we reach out collectively and twist the knob and swing wide the door into a brand-new shiny, sparkly, new week that is waiting for us to live into. And we make mention of this lots of weeks because it’s all out in front of us friends. Nothing…nothing had gone wrong or right and how we live into this week, how we conduct ourselves in thought, word, and deed is indeed gonna write the story of the week. And, so, allowing the Scriptures to be part of the rhythm of our days and our weeks gives us the counsel we need for the next steps that we are to take. So, here we go taking the next step forward. This week we’ll read from the Christian Standard Bible, and we’re still working our way through the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and working our way through the letter to the Hebrews in the New. So, first Ezekiel chapter 21 and 22.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for bringing us into this new week, this shiny, sparkly, new week as we often say because that’s what it is. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit into all that we do, all that we think, all that we say, all that we are in this week. We ask that You would lead us into all truth as You’ve promised. We ask that You would illuminate our path as You promised. And we ask that as we come here each and every day to be fed and nourished by Your word that it would do just that - feed our souls and direct our paths. We pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is certainly home base, a place that’s always open and always on and always a place to find out what’s going on around here and a place to reach out.

So, it’s home base and it is the home of the Prayer Wall, which you can find in the Community section of the website where brothers and sisters are reaching out for, or in prayer for one another on a continual basis. So, be sure to be aware of that. And that’s the thing about this community, we have prayed for each other all of these years and it has been a place of tremendous healing over the years. So, stay connected through prayer at the Daily Audio Bible Prayer Wall.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it lives on the homepage and we wouldn’t be here, none of us would be here taking this journey through the Scriptures, at least like this, if we were not in this together. And, so, I thank you for your partnership. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button and that is in the upper right-hand corner of the app or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or you can press the Hotline button, the little red button in the Daily Audio Bible app, and just go from there.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi DAB friends this is Stephanie from Bangalore currently in the US. I actually have news about my visa…well…I have news about my passport is on its way back and I should, Lord willing, receive it tomorrow, Lord willing, there will be a visa in it. If not, well, I guess we’ll breathe and see what God does next. But the real reason for my calling is once again my friend’s son Jack who is an eight-year-old who was diagnosed with leukemia just over a month ago now and he has been very, very sick in the ICU. Basically, they did a biopsy yesterday on his kidney and praise God he didn’t bleed out or anything during the biopsy but it came back for a very aggressive type of Fungus, Mucor fungus, I think that’s what she said it was, and it is attacking his body, it has attacked his spinal cord, he has no feeling or ability to move from his navel down. They keep testing him to make sure that it’s not affecting higher but currently he’s intubated and sedated because it was getting so hard for him to breathe and his heart is starting to get irritated with the infection. Please pray that they can find the right drug to treat this very very quickly. She said her interpretation was that today, and today is 5^th November, I don’t know when this will play of course but…but today is crucial. The PICU doctors need to keep his body going long enough so that Lord willing the drugs will start to treat the infection, his body can ramp up and treat the infection or fight the infection. So, please pray for them, for the doctors, for Jack’s body and for the death of this fungus. Thank you.

Hello, Daily Audio Bible this is Duane from Wisconsin all praise and glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today is day 139 praying for our children. It is November 5^th, yes, November already. Calling in for Ida who would like us to pray for her niece Julie who’s missing. I know that was a few days ago but I pray she has been found. I pray she is safe. Please call in to update us on that Ida. Rob called in. Rob Worship Dude would like us to pray for his son who is dealing with some blood clots. Betty would like us to pray for her son Nathan whose dealing with emotional issues. Angela Q would like us to pray for her son Grant and his relationship with the Lord. And then there was a lady who called in and wanted us to pray for her daughter who is moving. They have an eight-year-old son and are going to alternate years of when they get to see him. So, let’s pray. Dear Lord, we ask that You pray with these…excuse me…be with these children Lord. We ask that You wrap Your arms around them and that You keep them safe, give them direction in their life, be with their parents, that they will be a godly parents and speak encouraging words to them and keep them safe in a godly manner. Also, if you’d please continue to pray for my sons Nicholas and Nathan that they’re safe and everything is going well and also my stepdaughter Brooke, if you’d pray for her. She’s having shoulder pain, had that for quite some time, that that would heal and she’s also some other physical issues, so I’d appreciate that. Want to lift this all up to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Brian and Jill, we thank you for this wonderful podcast and this opportunity to share in God’s love and pray for each other. Love you all. Bye.

Yo what’s up it’s Jack. I’ve always been kind of like scared to call in but now it’s so easy is just kinda like I’m just going to go with it because right now I really need some help. Kind of gotten to that point where I’ve just given up and kinda like, “God I need you to take it all because I can’t handle it anymore.” I don’t know what to do. So, I just want to let you all know. Like, I have a daughter. Her name is McKinley. She’s like the best thing in the world. Definitely having like bad thoughts that maybe what if it wasn’t my daughter. And I don’t have thoughts like that because I’m not sure if that’s what I should be thinking. I’m thinking that cause me and my long-term girlfriend, we’ve been on and off, are having a hard time right now. But I would just like to ask for prayers to help me do what God wants me to do and help me see the path that He’s created for me. Thank you, guys and have a great day.

Hey brothers and sisters in the Lord Yeshua, just greet you in the name of Jesus. I just want to say that I love you and I want to tell you how much I am just so thankful for you. I don’t know where you’re at in this world, you know, and God knows and I just say you’re part of my body the body of Christ, we’re all one, we’re part of the body and I just wanted to reach out and say I love you and just to hang in there, not just to hang in there, but to just cast your burdens upon the Lord Yeshua. And I just want to pray over you a blessing and I just want to say, Father thank You so much for Yeshua, Your son Jesus Christ who died in the cross, who took our sins and who restored us back to You so that we could be one with You as Yeshua Jesus is one with You. Thank You that You gave us Your Spirit, Your precious Holy Spirit to come and abide in us and to live with us. And Father, I ask You Holy Spirit that as I’m praying here that You would just touch my brother, my sister right now, that You would just break off any hardness of heart, that You would lift up their heart, that You would take the pain that’s in their heart Lord and just heal it to remove it. Lord that You would take the pain in the heart and You would shape them and mold them into a vessel that You are pleased with. Lord I ask that if there’s any unforgiveness that it would be removed and that they would be filled with the love of Elohim so that they can spread the message of the good news in Jesus’ name. I love You brothers and sisters have a great and amazing day.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible it’s Diana from Virginia. I wanted to say a big thank you to Brian today for your commentary on Ezekiel. Today is November 6^th and I just wanted to let you know that this truly touched me. This spoke to me personally. I __, I __  and thank you for the wonderful music, because that helped me to stay in the moment and reflect. That was truly powerful. Thank you for reminding me that God is not just this, you know, this forever big unemotional being. God is somebody that has feelings. Thank you for bringing that to reality for me. Thank you. And I hope that this touched a lot…I am…I am…I hope this touched a lot of people too because so many times we kind of just go through the motions and think we can just go to God and ask for forgiveness and move on and I’ve been guilty of that. And, so, I hope that I can come back to this and remind myself when I fall out that…like that little girl in Ezekiel. So, thank you so much for that. I just wanted to let you know how powerful that was. Thank you.

Ezekiel 20:1-49, Hebrews 9:11-28, Psalms 107:1-43, Proverbs 27:11

Today is the 9^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we…well…as we begin to close the books on another one of our weeks and continue forward on our journey. So, we’ve been reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, which is, of course, what we’ll do today. And we’re continuing the journey through the book of Ezekiel. Today we’ll read chapter 20.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for another week in Your word and we can see on the calendar that we don’t have so many of these weeks left before we will conclude another revolution around the sun, and another adventure through the Scriptures. And, of course, that’s thinking out in front of ourselves. We are here now, and Your word keeps us grounded each day in the day that we are in and You give us what we need for the day. And we thank You for bringing us this far and we do indeed look forward with anticipation that You will give us what we need each and every day as we continue this journey to the end of the year. Come Holy Spirit, speak to us through Your word, plant Your word in the fertile soil of our lives and may our hearts be fertile soil, not hardened, but fertile and ready to receive from You, that we might flourish and that the fruit of the Spirit might be the harvest. Come Jesus we pray in Your mighty name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base and that is the website. That’s we’re you find out what’s going on around here.

So, I mention often the different places to go, like the Community section. That’s where the Prayer Wall lives or the Daily Audio Bible shop, that’s where resources are available for the journey that we are all on together. So, check those things out. Stay connected.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we continue our journey forward into and through this year then I cannot thank you enough. It is all of us being in this together that makes it possible. And, so, thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996. Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial or uoi can just press the Hotline button in the Daily Audio Bible app, the little red button at the top and start talking.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Kathleen from Florida. I would appreciate your prayers. I’m getting ready to start a woman’s Bible study in my home that is tied to the Daily Audio Bible and the God of Your Story. And I’m just really coveting your prayers that the people who are supposed to come, that there will be no hindrances and that everything that is said and done will just be of the Holy Spirit. And really, really appreciate this portal and life giving resource and would really appreciate your prayers for this season that we’re moving into. Thanks.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is Denise it is November the 5^th this is my second recording this morning but I’m catching up from this weekend. I listened to all the prayers and it is a great way to do some housework and I just want to thank everyone for calling in and people who are praying and people who requested. Just wanted to name some people. Mark with end-stage COPD, we are praying for you. Mike Greenberg who is dealing with a friend whose daughter committed suicide, I don’t even know outside of the word how to handle that but brother we’re praying for you. Praying for Bailey Ann in Tennessee who is fighting a variety of mental illnesses and isolation. We’re praying for Kevin who was…who is bipolar and stabbed himself and just praying over healing and sending all the right healers to him. We’re praying over Max from Adison. Max, please call in and let us know how you’re doing. Praying for Brenda who woke up on 9/11 who couldn’t walk. Praying for Tom who prayerfully cried for healing for his wife Nancy. And Tom I heard you and your prayer, and you are on the repeat list in the Bible or in my prayer list I have. Praying for Shannon in Salem Oregon and the elementary school community with a child that was hit and how painful that all must be. Betty and her son Nathan. Jason with chronic fatigue. Mark and Sydney for your niece. Daddy’s Dreamer for your children who are facing gender identity. Running Desperately to Jesus for your seizures. Marjorie and her husband. Marjorie was just committed to a mental health facility. And lastly, Mike from Florida you called in about your daughter and could you call back and let us know how things are going. We’re praying but we’d love some specific prayer points. Thanks everyone. Praying for you all. Amen.

Hey DAB family this is Tony the painter. I’m not in London anymore I’m in Hatfield but I…I…I…I have to pray today for Sandy and Amarillo. Father God Lord please come into Sandy’s heart, into her mind, into her body and always Lord, never ever let Sandy ever forget You. Lord let her just be filled with Your Holy Spirit for all the rest of her life Lord. And Father God Lord I praise You and we’ll praise You and we ask You to just pour out Your blessings on Sandy and if possible, bring healing to her mind. Lord we love you in the name of Jesus. Amen. And Sandy this is kind of a huge thing for me to hear you saying these things because to become a Christian I had a motorbike crash at 65 miles an hour and I hit my head and my short-term memory is terrible. And, so, hearing you speak the way that you did really…it just…I just…I just heard your frustration and…and that realization that there are limitations. But you know what?  You can come through all of this because Jesus is walking right with you. He’s got you in His hands and He loves you with all of His heart. So, anyway, God bless everybody. I’m praying for all of you. Love you guys. Oh…and I’ve got my Campfire mug. That’s so cool. Thank you, Brian. Take care, God bless you all. Bye-bye.

This is Kathleen from Florida. I heard Sandy from Amarillo who called in this morning about a brain stroke. And I have to say that I just wept after first hearing her plea. So, Jesus I ask for Your holy hedge of protection around Sandy physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, that she would have words of knowledge and that she would have opportunities to minister to the medical attending and ask for healing for her, but I ask for or Your will to be done and if it means You have spiritual healing in mind for those around her or who are attending to her, I pray You give her grace as Your work with the Holy Spirit comes full circle. Thank You, Jesus. And Sandy, know that I find You extremely courageous for calling in. We’ll be praying for You.

Good morning family this is Bridget from New York City today is November 5^th. I’m behind. I’m still on November 1^st. I just wanted to share my heart with you guys. I woke up today with this song on my Spirit, “Rescue” from Lauren Daigle and one of the lyrics really stood out and, you know, he…she says, “I hear you whisper underneath your breath. I hear you calling with your SOS.” And I know for me personally sometimes, I get hurt and offended by the words that my husband says and the way that he behaves. And it’s hard, right, not to feel, you know. It’s hard not to let it bother me, you know. And then God puts this song on my heart, and I know that He does hear my heart and I know that He will rescue and I’m just thankful for that. So, I just want to pray for those women that feel, you know, offended or hurt by their spouses. Lord, I just lift them up, I lift up every single female that’s in a marriage God that Lord her husband’s words weigh heavy to the point that it shakes her atmosphere Lord and I pray Father for You to shake her atmosphere. My God Your word says that You are our Father, that there is nothing that You would keep from us, that if Your child asks for a fish, will You give them a rock? No God. So, I just pray right now for every woman that is hurting that Father You would hear their cries and answer their heart cry Lord God, that You will open up their husband’s eyes to see God how it is that their words weigh heavy on their wives Lord God. Help us God in Jesus’ mighty, mighty name help us God. Amen.

Ezekiel 18:1-19:14, Hebrews 9:1-10, Psalms 106:32-48, Proverbs 27:10

Today is the 8^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we…well…move toward the end of the week by taking the next step forward in the Scriptures. And we’ve been reading from the Contemporary English Version this week, which is what we will continue to do until there is no more of this week left, which takes us back out into the book of Ezekiel. Today we’ll read chapters 18 and 19 before moving into our next step forward in the book of Hebrews. But first, Ezekiel chapter 18.

Commentary:

Okay. We mentioned this before. As we move into the books of prophecy there are plenty of prophetic utterances that…that, you know, that you read like page after page of destruction. This is one of the ways in which…well…basically that God’s got this reputation as this ornery tyrant up in heaven who occasionally gets up on the wrong side of the bed and destroys something. And, so, we can subtly get just a little bit of an unease, a little bit of a sense of unpredictability. Of course, we never look at our own unpredictability’s and our…our own attitudes, but we want God to be this constant, always benevolent, always in a good mood, always happy, always just really, really thrilled to shower flowers of blessings regardless of what we’ve been up to here on earth. So, we can read to the prophets and start wondering about all of that, which is how we get this angry God idea. This is what we’ve got to remember. Ezekiel, which is what we’re reading, but the prophets, they were prophesying, right? They were foretelling an outcome that had not yet happened. And even though things were very difficult for the Hebrew people, especially throughout the biblical narratives, all of it was avoidable, which is what God spoke about in Ezekiel today. So, God said through the prophet Ezekiel, “I the Lord God don’t like to see wicked people die. I enjoy seeing them turn from their sins and live.” Okay. So, God didn’t send these prophets and the things that they said didn’t get written down somewhere and preserved all the way until today simply to show us how unpredictable God might be if he gets up on the wrong side of the bed. God was carefully explaining over decades why things were moving in the wrong direction. And usually this was because the people were breaking their covenant. And we could go all into the idea of covenant and all of this in the Old Testament context, but this is not so foreign. Like, covenant is not an idea that we don’t have in our modern era. We still do enter into covenants we just usually call them contracts or some sort of an agreement. But if you’ve ever signed a contract drawn up by a lawyer, you…you…it will say that, “we warrant and covenant about the things we are agreeing to.” And when you sign it, you’re binding yourself to the covenant. So, obviously, some covenants aren’t worth the paper that they were written on, but a real covenant, an actual covenant is a deeper thing than the paper it’s written on. The paper is simply there to refer to if somebody thinks it’s being broken. So…so like if we were to break the covenant of marriage by stepping out on our spouse and committing adultery with another then…I mean some of us have experienced that and other…others of us have been around someone who’s experienced that but all of us can understand what we’re talking about here. If that happens the pain that comes, the destruction that follows happens but it’s not God’s fault you broke the covenant. Like we can frame God for it. We…we try to blame God on all…all kinds of things He has nothing to do with. But…but at the end of the day we…we will reap what we sow. And the prophets are talking to people who had been sowing wickedness for generations and…and time was up. They were about to move into the harvest portion of what they’d sown, and it wasn’t gonna look good. And we’re far enough into the Bible at this point now that we’ve seen God’s people break the covenant over and over repetitively, habitually. And the prophets served basically as an advance warning system. Like, God could have judged people the second they broke the covenant immediately. So, these profits coming in and saying bad things, they’re on their way, is actually God being long-suffering and kind. He didn’t have to warn anybody about anything. He gave them a chance to return to Him, to come back, to reverse course, to change their minds. So, as we read Ezekiel, as we read through the prophets, we just need to remember, if we boil everything down and take the circumstances and all the different things that are in these Scriptures out and try to get to the essence of the prophetic message, basically God is saying, “we were in covenant…like…we agreed…we entered into a covenant together. a covenant like marriage” because those are the kinds of images God uses. And God’s saying, “you cheated, you stepped out, you broke the covenant and we agreed. We agreed on the benefits and curses. Like we agreed on what would happen if this happened. So, you are inheriting the curses of the covenant. You broke it and you separated us. You broke our agreement. You broke our relationship. We are separated. And that separation is not what you want at all. You are going to destroy yourself. You are leading yourself into trouble want to face. But if you’re gonna do that, if that is really, really…if you’re own destruction is really what you’re after, then that’s what you can do. But if you do that, I’m still not gonna forget you because your own doom…like the path that you are walking yourself into, the fire that you’re gonna walk through, at some point you’re gonna realize, “this isn’t what I wanted. This isn’t where I was trying to go. I didn’t understand. And now I have lost everything, and I have been ground to powder.” And God is like on the other side of that, “I will be waiting to restore you. I will be waiting for you to come back someday. Someday I will win your heart again and I will restore you.” And, that’s sort of my paraphrase but just…let’s just read from the book of Ezekiel. “I will judge each of you for what you’ve done, so stop sinning or else you will certainly be punished. Give up your evil ways and start thinking pure thoughts and be faithful to me. Do you really want to be put to death for your sins? I, the Lord God don’t want to see that happen to anyone. So, stop sinning and live.” So, God’s not on the wrong side of the bed wanting to destroy people as we read Ezekiel. He wanted to destroy wickedness. Anything that was able to seduce God’s people into wickedness was eventually gonna entice them to break the covenant and, if left unchecked to its final conclusion would be utter destruction for them. And to personalize this, we’ve talked about the fact that we have volition. Like, we can make a choice and that choice gets to matter and we have a bad habit of making a choice and blaming God for the outcome when he didn’t make the choice, we did. And the choices that we make, they make the story of our lives. I mean, we write those pages with the choices that we make. And, so, we have the same choice. Like we’re either gonna stay in covenant or we’re not. But God’s heart is that we…that we will because He is remaining faithful. He loves us enough to stay true to us, to be faithful toward us so that we might live. And, so, if we want all the benefits of this new covenant we’ve been reading about in the book of Hebrews, if we want all the benefits that are promised, which…which is everything that we believe, then we have to be faithful. Like that’s how it works. We’re in covenant. There are terms. Like, so if your married…if you’re married, you have entered into a covenant. There are terms. We don’t necessarily drag out those terms and try to interpret them, but we know, and we have to live within them, and we have to respond to them. If we’re gonna navigate our lives and into destruction it’s not God’s fault, but no matter where we are on that progression we can always repent. This is a love that is beyond anything we can describe. We can always come running home. And what would life be like if we never left again because the choice is ours to make.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your love that is so persistent, so disruptive at times, so unstoppable. Your pursuit of us is unspeakable and if we…if we could love You with every fiber of our being, we still do not understand or comprehend the kind of love that You have bestowed upon us. And yet it is our desire to love You with every fiber of our being because this is all we have. What You’ve given us, this identity, this body, this mind, this soul, these emotions, we give them to You. We have been trying to fight our own battles and we have been walking away from You estranged because we’re blaming You for what we’ve done. This has gotten so twisted and we repent. You haven’t hurt us. We’ve hurt ourselves and blamed You or we’ve been broken in this fallen world by other people and other actions and blamed You when You’re the only one that could ever, ever, ever show us how to navigate any of this. And, so, we return to You. Come Holy Spirit. We ask forgiveness for our pride, for our arrogance, for our assumptions about You. We return. We want to live inside this covenant and remain faithful so that we might live. Come Holy Spirit we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and its home base, of course, and where you find out what’s going on around here. So, be sure to stay tuned and stay connected.

Check out the resources that are available in the Daily Audio Bible shop. We’ve crafted resources for this journey, including our newest resource, the God of Your Story, which is a 365 day devotional format following the pattern that we use here at the Daily Audio Bible and it is a fantastic companion to what we do each and every day and a fantastic…it’s a fantastic resource to give to anyone who is interested in trying to find, like contextualizing, gathering, and find meaning that’s like actionable meaning for today from the Scriptures, which is…this is what we attempt to do every day. So, the God of your story is that in written form and it is available in…well…its available everywhere, but it’s available at the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well. And all the proceeds from the sale of the God of Your Story from the Daily Audio Bible shop, hundred percent of it, supports the efforts that…that…that we put forth every day to keep us here every day. So, check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There’s a link that lives on the homepage. If…if you’re using Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address, if you prefer, is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have….if you have a prayer request or comment you can do a couple of things, you can press the Hotline button in app, the little red button at the top and just start talking or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Daily Audio Bible family, I am a new listener my name is Laura I live in South Florida and I just started listening in August of this year and I haven’t missed one single day because I just love it so much. I can only just say wow, what God has done through all of you. I love the way you love each other and that you pray for each other. And I also am praying. I’m thanking God for Brian that he listened to the Holy Spirit’s leading whenever he started this podcast many years ago. I also am praying specifically for Aaron from Oklahoma. Every time I open the podcast, I think of you Aaron and your wife. Your wife is a person who needs to listen to what God has in store for her and I just pray that she would stop and listen. I pray…I know that over 40 years ago I was in her position and I have so many regrets from my past. But I now, 40 years later, know that I’m forgiven and I know that God can restore marriages and I know that He can restore your marriage between the two of you and be an example to the world of what He can do in marriage. And I also pray for Shannon in Aberdeen. I don’t know if you got the jobs yet Shannon but I just pray that you will not give up, that you will think of three things every day that God has blessed you with and that you would be grateful and that your gratefulness will proceed what you do every day. And I just pray that you will soon get a job and that someone will find favor with you, an employer woud find favor if you haven’t got a job yet. Hang in there, girl. I love you, love all of you. Thank you, Brian.

Hi DAB family this is Nadine from New Hampshire. I feel like I broken record every time I call in. Just asking you to continue to lift my husband and I up in prayer. This weekend some things happened, and some things were said, and I just feel like maybe restoration is not gonna be a possibility because of these things that were said. I pray to God that that isn’t the case. This has been just such a hard and trying time and sometimes I feel hopeless and today is one of those days. I don’t know what God’s will is for my marriage but I’m giving it to Him and I’m praying that restoration is in our future and if not, I know that whatever happens there’s a better plan. But I just feel like there’s so much destruction between my husband and I sometimes that I don’t know if restoration is possible. It really…it’s really awful. So, could you please just lift us up in prayer and pray for him for forgiveness and pray for peace for my husband. Thank you, family.

God bless you this is Matthew Fouts from Fairhope Alabama. This morning, the words, “but now what.” I’m praying for the “now what” for understanding. What I mean by the “now what” is, I went through a period of time in my life where, basically, the statement or the question is, “okay, I’m saved, so now what.” So, I pray for understanding for me, for you, for all of us. The Lord says in Proverbs, “in all your getting, get understanding.” So, Father in Jesus’ name I’m asking for understanding about the now what, how we fit into the body, what offices we’re supposed to fill, what things we’re supposed to do, what…who we’re supposed to work with, where we’re supposed to be, how we’re supposed to do things. God, I pray for understanding for the now what, for each of our lives that we’ll know that we’re in the right place and if we’re not the right place we know where we should be. And God, You make the provision. You send us where we need to go. We’re opening…we ask God, open our ears so we hear You clearly and give us boldness and strength to walk on the path that You have set before us. God, You’ve ordained our steps. God we’re asking for boldness to step…take that step to where we’re supposed to go and into the “now what” with You in Jesus’ name. God bless you.

Please pray Herman __ he’s a homeless gentleman that lives in Atlanta. He needs a place to live. He’s a veteran. He’s 73 years old and just pray that a door will open so that he can have a permanent residence for the remaining years of his life. He did accept Jesus as his Lord but again if you can please pray that some way, he will have favor and he will be able to get into a retirement home. He has a limited income and the wait list is very long for __. So, again thank you for praying that Herman will have favor and will have a place to live and not sleep on the bench anymore. He’s been sleeping on the bench for almost 2 years that I’ve seen him. Thank you.

Hi this is Victoria Soldier calling in. I just wanted to pray for the DABbers. My heart went out to Mark, he’s in a hospital, he was feeling worse and I just wanted to call, and I wanted to pray for you Mark and let you know that you’re not alone. I want to also pray for Terry and Jason. And I want to pray for Kim and her mother in law in Chicago. And I wanted to pray for those who are going through depression and those who are going through in their marriage. And I want to pray a special healing for Mark. Mark and those who are going through a sick in their bodies, I want to pray that God work His miracle. Gracious Father I praise You today and I magnify You. Lord that You are a God that can do anything that You said You wouldn’t hold any good thing a from them. Lord, Mark needs You today Lord. He’s going through, he needs You in his body Lord. You just do as You always do Lord, You do it Your way and You do it so magnificently. Lord You heal his body, You heal his body Lord in the name of Jesus. Take away the pain Lord in the name of Jesus. Lord You touch those who are going through in their marriages. You touch those Young people who are going through, who have lost their way Lord. You have…You help them to find their way in the wilderness Lord even in…in…in You. Oh Lord we just thank You Lord for having Your way in the lives of our children, in the lives of Mark and the life of all those DABbers who are going through all those DABbers who are going through in their marriage and the enemy is trying to come in the midst. Lord You have Your way. You never leave us nor forsake us. Lord let them begin to worship and praise You and…and…and rejoice in the victory, that they receive it in the name of Jesus. And Lord we thank You for touching Brian and Jill and…

Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Tracy calling from Baltimore. I felt led to call in to pray for marriages, especially long-term marriages after hearing the prayer requests end of October from Leonora a retired nurse with a retired spouse and she’s worried about her ability to maintain a relationship with God and the DAB. And then another lady called in shortly after that who had been married for 35 years but lost intimacy with her husband. And I just really related to these women and I wanted to call and pray for marriages, especially long-term marriages. So, God we just thank You and we glorify You, we exalt Your holy name. We thank You God for choosing us, for choosing something as intimate as marriage to minister to us, to grow us, and to draw us closer to You. We ask that You please give us a heart, give us Your heart for our spouse, give us Your heart for acceptance, for love, for patience, and for grace and mercy. God please rid us of all jealousy and covetousness, that we think our marriage should look a certain way or be a certain way or look wake was on TV. Help us reveal the truth God, reveal Your will for our marriage. Open our eyes to see what marriage really is supposed to look like, what it’s really supposed to be, and how it’s supposed to minister to this world. You know God what our marriages stand in need of and we confess that we do not, and we just ask God that You give us the answers and open our eyes so that we can see the truth. Amen…

Ezekiel 16:42-17:24, Hebrews 8:1-13, Psalms 106:13-31, Proverbs 27:7-9

Today is the 7^th day of November. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we continue the journey through our week. And the trail leads us back into the prophetic book of Ezekiel today. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. And today Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 42 through 17 verse 24.

Commentary:

Okay. If what we were reading in the book of Hebrews, especially the last part of what we were reading in Hebrews sounded vaguely or even very familiar, that’s because we’re reading Hebrews, quoting extensively from the book of Jeremiah. In fact, this is the longest Old Testament quotation found in the New Testament, it’s in Hebrews 8. So, to begin understand why a very lengthy quotation from Jeremiah chapter 31 is found in the book of Hebrews then we need to refocus on what is right before us the, name of this book or letter, Hebrews. Hebrews was written for Hebrews. So, the Hebrew or Jewish sensibilities, the entire worldview and context is foundational, is irreplaceable in this book. So, most of us are Gentile and most of us…well not most of us…all of us are several thousand years removed from the writing of this letter. But most of us are not a natural born Hebrew person. And yet all of the things that are being discussed are from a Hebrew perspective in Hebrews and for that matter for most of the Bible. And, so, we’ve grown accustomed to certain ways that things were done. Whether we understand them or not we kinda have a little bit of an overview of the Hebrew culture, at least biblically. So, imagine if there wasn’t anything called the Old Testament, the Torah. What if there weren’t the law and the prophets? What if they didn’t exist? Then what we’re reading in Hebrews wouldn’t make any sense at all because it’s coming completely from a Hebrew context as it relates to what we now call the Old Testament. So, we have to have our minds pretty clear here that the entire…like the whole premise for the book of Hebrews is to systematically provide evidence and theological statements about a new covenant and a new high priest and why that matters. And if any evidence could not be found, like from previous times in this culture then this would be like a newfangled invention that would be very hard for people to swallow. In fact, even with the evidence it was pretty hard for people to swallow. But the writer of Hebrews quoted Jeremiah at length because the prophecy found in Jeremiah foretold a coming new covenant. So, when Hebrews was written Jeremiah’s prophecy was already centuries old, but it wasn’t something that…that had fallen into obscurity. It was part of the Hebrew Scriptures, was part of the prophets. So, it was known. And people who were devout in their faith, they would’ve known what was being talked about here. So, the author of Hebrews is basically saying, “this isn’t surprising…like this isn’t surprising news. We’ve been waiting for this. This was foretold. This is what we’ve been looking for.” So, people who had begun to follow Jesus weren’t attempting to like to invent a new religion, make completely new inventions inside the faith. They were simply…they were announcing that what had been promised had come, and there was a new covenant. So…so the writer of Hebrews is like, “if the first covenant had no faults there would be no need for a second covenant to replace it. So, in this first covenant, priests represented the people and they fulfilled the sacrifices and rituals and customs and holidays, holy days, that they understood were the obligations of the law. But according to Hebrews, all of that effort, as good as it was and is, is only a copy, a foreshadowing of…of what’s really going on in heaven. So, kind of following the train of thought, if there were a new covenant that had been foretold a long time ago, and as the writer of Hebrews is pointing out that is the case because it’s found in the book of Jeremiah. If a new covenant actually did become valid and it had been instituted by the Lord God the most high, himself, then there would be a need for a new high priest to preside over that agreement. And that’s what the author of Hebrews is getting at. We have a high priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven, where He ministers in the heavenly tabernacle. So, let’s just zoom back here to our modern times understanding that we’re mostly Gentile people. And, so, we can read this, and we can even understand it. If we’ve spent any time in the Old Testament, we can understand what’s happening here. But it’s pretty complicated and highly theological. And, so, we can…we can pretty much zone out and just be like, “it’s like…it’s in the Bible…I accept it. I don’t understand how the tediousness of this.” But if we had been in the first century and we had been a Hebrew and we had been devout in our faith, what is being said here is so profoundly revolutionary that most…most people didn’t embrace the idea that God actually was doing something new in the world through a Messiah as spoken in Jeremiah. Like, they believed that was gonna happen, but very, very complicated. Like, they would’ve expected it to be more obvious. The thing about Hebrews is that it’s intention wasn’t to convince a Hebrew person to…to renounce their religious convictions and move to a different religion called Christianity. None of that was formed yet. Like, just the idea of people who believe in Jesus being called Christians was brand-new. So, nobody was trying to talk anybody out of their faith. It was actually the opposite. It was to reveal Jesus to the Jewish or Hebrew people as the foretold expected next step in their faith. So, Hebrews was unveiling the ongoing Hebrew story within the context of what God was inviting His people into, this new covenant. The shadow of the old covenant was being replaced by an unbroken and unblemished new covenant, presided over by a sinless high priest in heaven. So, for a Hebrew in the first century who’s devout hearing this, it would have indeed been monumentally good news if it were true, because it would mean that the final sacrifice had been made and that…that sin wasn’t an issue anymore. The law was fulfilled, which was just a bridge too far for most people. But at the same time, as Hebrews is pointing out, this has been foretold. Like, this isn’t new news. It’s old news that is now coming to fruition. And it’s not the only thing that Jeremiah foretold. “The time will come” according Jeremiah here. “I the Lord will write my laws on their minds and hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people. Not one of them will have to teach another to know me their Lord. All of them will know me no matter who they are. I will treat them with kindness, even though they are wicked. I will forget their sins.”

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word. We thank You for all of the different ways that it that it stretches us. We thank You for the book of Hebrews and allowing us to understand the good news through the lens of the Jewish context and experience. And we thank You that You foretold what was going to happen all the way back in the book of Jeremiah. And then we have this interpretation in the book of Hebrews to contextualize it into the first century and we have been doing ever since, which brings us to today with a great high priest, presiding over a new covenant that tells us that we have been adopted into the family of God, Your family. We are Your family and that is news that is so good it’s almost impossible to comprehend. So, Holy Spirit we ask that You make it a reality in our lives so that we live accordingly, revealing Your kingdom at work in this world. Come Holy Spirit we pray. Into all of this we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website and that makes it home base. That’s where you find out what’s going on around here.

That is where the Prayer Wall lives. That’s in the Community section, where continual prayer for and asking…giving and receiving of prayers are happening on a continual basis there. So, be familiar with that. That’s always a place to reach out to. In that same section, the Community section of the website, you’ll find all of the different links to the different social media channels that we are on. So, that is also a good thing to be aware of if you’re on social media.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link and it’s on the homepage. It just lives there. And I thank you profoundly and with all humility for those of you who have clicked that link over the years. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner of the app or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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

Ezekiel 14:12-16:41, Hebrews 7:18-28, Psalms 106:1-12, Proverbs 27:4-6

Today is November 6^th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is wonderful to be here with you today as we continue our journey through this week. And…well…yeah…as we’re getting fully moved into this month, I trust all is well wherever you are, but this I know, we’re around the global campfire now and things are well here. So, no matter what’s swirling around outside, this space that we have to allow God’s word to speak to us and just wash into our lives and into our hearts, no matter what’s swirling on outside of here, inside of here, around our proverbial global campfire, this is a safe place. We can let those things go. They’ll be there. They’ll be there. They’re not going to go away. They’ll probably try to rush in upon us as soon as we leave this space that we’ve created to hear God’s word, but we may leave here more ready for what those things have to say and we may have a lot more strength than when we came in. So, let’s still ourselves and let God’s word speak to us today. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week and continuing our journey through the book of Ezekiel. And today we’ll read chapter 14 verse 12 through 16 verse 41.

Commentary:

Okay. How…how many of you within the sound of my voice have feelings? Right? How many of you have emotions or an emotional life? We all have to raise our hands because emotions, this is something that is highly developed in the human species. And although we’re not the only creatures on this planet that have feelings, we do, and what we do with them is sort of a matter of the story of our lives. I was…I was taught all through my child not to trust my feelings. So, like I was raised to suppress my feelings because they couldn’t be counted on because they could lead me astray. And then I reached a point where I was like, “man, I’m not feeling much of anything, I need to get in touch with my feelings.” So, it was like this back and forth emotional part of our lives. Does…does God have feelings, though? Does God have an emotional life? I mean, on the one hand we’re created in His image so He must, right? Then on the other hand, He’s is God so He wouldn’t have to feel anything. Like if we come to Him and say, “I’ve sinned Father and this is what I’ve done”, then he just forgives us and we don’t think about it, we just move on, He doesn’t have any feelings about it, we’re allowed to release our feelings from it. Like He’s too perfect to feel distress, but that’s not the story we find about God in the Bible. We don’t find this being who checks in from time to time but really doesn’t care, He’s just completely aloof to it all. Even the Bible that we’re reading, like if God didn’t care at all to put down the things that He felt about things, and the right paths to walk, then we wouldn’t be having the Bible. So, if He didn’t feel something toward us we wouldn’t be reading the Bible and since we are reading the Bible it’s pretty hard to find this aloof, dispassionate being who couldn’t care less. At least the way I read the Bible God is very passionate in the Bible. And passion that like…that’s an emotional thing. So, we have been working our way since we’ve gotten into the profits into a lot of warnings and we’ve heard a lot of horrible things that that are potentially out in front of the people who are hearing the prophecies because they won't…because they won’t return to the One that they entered into covenant with. And to understand the heart of God, the way he feels about things, is…is no more vivid than what we read in the book of Ezekiel today in all of the Bible. God was speaking to His people, the Hebrew people, and He told a story about his little baby girl. And she was born, and she didn’t even have her umbilical cord cut. Like, she was unwanted and…and so she had been abandoned in a field to die or…or…or to be eaten by a wild animal. And God said He came by and He saw her kicking in that field in her own blood and, quoting from Ezekiel, “as you lay there, I said live.” And, so, the story goes on and the baby moves out of infancy and…and becomes a lovely beautiful young woman under God’s care. And when she’s old enough, God enters into covenant, a covenant of marriage with her and He bestows all kinds of wonderful things upon her. She has lack for nothing. She’s cared for. She is loved when she should have perished in that field. And now she’s grown up to be as beautiful as a queen. And this is the imagery that God is choosing to use prophetically to speak to his people about what has happened in their relationship. And, so, He says, “like, you grew up. Things were great. We were in love. But you started noticing you were beautiful, and you started noticing people notice that your beautiful and you liked it. And, so, before long…before long she’d committed adultery, she’d stepped out on the relationship. But it wasn’t just this one-time kind of accidental…if there is such a thing…slip up. She began to prostitute herself, she would sleep with anybody and she was taking all the good things that God had given her and she was using those things to commit adultery with the other nations and worship the other gods of the other nations who had become her lovers. And, so, God is basically, “like…I can’t…I can’t believe this is happening.” Right? “How could such a thing ever happen? This is unbelievable.” We should be able to be tracking with this story. I mean like, some of us have been walked through stories like this, but whether we’ve actually walked through a story like this or not, we should be tracking with this story. It’s like this story of…of a little baby girl that shouldn’t have lived who grew up to become as beautiful as a queen who left the one who saved her life and loved her and was just promiscuous all over the place. So, it’s like a terribly ungrateful story. And if it just ended there, that would…that would be enough. But let me just read God’s words. These…these are the words He spoke through Jeremiah. “Then you took your sons and daughters, the children you bore me, and you sacrificed them to your God’s. Wasn’t enough to be a prostitute. Do you have to slaughter my kids by sacrificing them to your idols?” Like, in all of your years of adultery and detestable sin, you have not once remembered the days long ago when you lay naked in a field kicking in your own blood. What sorrow awaits you says the sovereign Lord.” So, if at the beginning when I was like, “does God have any feelings?” If you were like, “No. I don’t really think He does.” Well then go read Ezekiel chapter 16 again. It seems as if he very much does. And from the perspective of the story that God told, one that we can really deeply relate to, even though it’s thousands of years old it’s as relevant today as ever. We can see why He sent the profits to tell the people this is going nowhere, this isn’t going to work, we are in covenant. This is not how this relationship is designed to operate. You are going to destroy yourself and I’m watching you do it and I’m getting so…I’m getting so angry at what’s happening here. This is not gonna work.” So, we can say like, “yeah, there’s a lot of promises of judgment in the prophets”, but we have to know that they’re…they’re the outcome of the path the people are on. If the people are gonna continue on that path then God is prophetically, in advance, saying what is going to happen. So, rather than this God with a thunderbolt so angry that He’s scorching the earth, we need to understand that God is upset because His beloved is cheating on Him. And He’s saying, “if you’re gonna go that way this is what it will look like. However, you don’t have to go that way. You can come back to me. You can return to me and I will actually take you back. You don’t deserve it at all, but I will take you back because I love you.? And all of a sudden, we can see that this story is an ongoing story. It’s a story that would send Jesus here to rescue us. So, if we want to…if we really really want what’s going on here, what’s being said here then we need to look at ourselves as the little girl in the story, which…which should make us uncomfortable. And maybe as we end our time here and we kind of all go away from the global campfire out into the world, maybe we should just stay here by ourselves for little bit just around the campfire alone. Maybe there’s a conversation with God that needs to happen because now maybe we’re seeing that He really does love us and what we do does matter to Him and does matter to his heart.

Prayer:

Father…Father forgive us. We don’t know what we’re doing, and this was Your prayer as You were being executed on our behalf. This was Your prayer. And, so, we ask forgiveness. Your words spoken in the book of Ezekiel certainly bring this home and bring this close. It’s just so easy to think of You as the eternal forgiver, that that You will overlook all of our faults, and You will. It’s a love that is so beyond our capacity we can’t even comprehend it, but we confess that we’ve abused Your mercy and grace and kindness so many times we wouldn’t even know where to start to count. And now we’re seeing what that feels like for You from the book of Ezekiel and that changes things because now we’re seeing what we haven’t seen before. Forgive is God. Take us back Lord. We come running back to You asking for forgiveness, not forgiveness so that we can turn around and cheat on You, as it were, again tomorrow, but so that we understand that we have entered into a covenant and it is all that we are in exchange for all that You are and it’s so lopsided in our favor, why would we ever walk away? And yet we confess we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone and we are truly sorry and we humbly repent. Come Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Song:

Gungor – Ezekiel

I found you naked
I found you lying there
In blood.

Your mother left you,
Your father threw you out.
Unloved.

I clothed your body
I washed the blood and dirt
From your hair.

I gave you jewelry
I gave you everything
I had.

I gave My heart
My heart, My love
I gave my heart,
My heart, My love

You became like
You were a stunning Bride
The world, they saw you
And how you loved their wives
My Bride

You broke My heart
My heart, My love
You broke My heart
My heart, My love.

You sold your body;
Exposed to all, My love
You slept with Stranger
You gave them everything we had.

Come back, My love
My love, come back.
Come back, My love.
My love, come back.