1/22/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Genesis 30-31

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological, I'm China. Today is the 22nd day of January. Welcome. It is so great to be here with you today. So excited to be back here reading the word of the Lord to you and with you. This is our second week together or my week second week with you and hope you are having a great day. As we start our week off together, we will be continuing our story. We are in Genesis 30 through 31, and since it's a new week, we're going to switch the translation and we will be in the Common English Bible for this week.

Commentary:

This is a very interesting story. I feel like we could do some family systems therapy here. I'm not qualified to do that. I did study a semester of it once years ago. But wow, this story is a lot to unpack here. And really, first and foremost, I cannot imagine, I don't know what it's like to have a sister because I don't have a biological one. I have sister in laws, but not a biological sister. And so I'm trying to imagine what it would be like to have a sister and be married to the same man, but knowing that the man either loves me only or doesn't love me at all and prefers my sister. That would be very difficult. And then I don't know what it would be like to have my sister. If I'm Rachel, I don't know what it would be like to have a sister, have all of these children, and me not being able to have many. And on the flip side, with Leah having all these children still not being able to be loved. So we have these two sisters who neither one of them are happy, neither one of them have what they want, and yet all of these sons are being birthed. Now, I know very, very little about generational trauma, but could you imagine being one of these sons being born out of despite your I'm trying to figure out how this could be related. Your aunt, sister, mom, wife, your cousins, brothers are all at rivalry, and they're born into rivalry. Literally. The intention of being created was to spite each other. And we have something that feels familiar. We have this, well, I can't have children, so sleep with my servant. When do we see that? We see that with Sarah saying that to Abram and with Hagar and we see that there's a son born out of out of that. And so again, just kind of familiarity with this story. There's this war and then there's, well, how about you just sleep with my servant and that will be my son? And then what's interesting, the erotic herbs. I'm like, okay, interesting fighting over erotic herbs and being like, hey, I sold erotic herbs, so you have to sleep with me. What a statement. What a marriage like, what not. Sometimes the readings up from the Bible. I'm like, okay, interesting. But then moving on forward, we see God remembers Rachel, and that's interesting to me. Did he forget her beforehand or is he just now aware? Oh, yes, Rachel, I see you. I see that you don't have any children. I will give you children. I don't think that he forgot her, but the text says that God remembered. He remembers Rachel, gives her a son, and she's basically like, great, would love another one, or maybe the Lord gives me another son and doesn't really say anything much more about their sons. God blesses Jacob and Laban. And Jacob has this attitude towards Laban that I feel like is justified, right? He's cheated basically 20 years of his life. Now I'm 25, so to be cheated 20 years of my life would feel pretty insane. Like that would feel quite despairing, especially 14 years. Just to have the woman that you love, the person that you love that's a lot. And then to work with him in his his flocks and to be cheated and you're paid to be changed ten times, that's, that's a lot of despair. But if you can remember Jacob, this is the same Jacob of a twin of Esau who stole his brother's birthright. So if we can kind of backtrack up this family line, we see that there's kind of always been the deceitful art motive we can go back with. Even with Abram, with his son Isaac kind of deceiving him. I mean, yes, he's obeying with the Lord, but going up the mountain and the trauma that would play on Isaac, my dad almost sacrificed me because the Lord said so. I don't know how you recover from that. But then Isaac and Rebecca, them deceiving sorry, Abraham and Sarah deceiving a specific king that I cannot remember his name right now. And then Abraham and Rebecca. Or not Abraham and Rebecca. Oh, my goodness. Isaac, Rebecca deceiving that same king. And again, just this kind of deceitfulness. And then Rebecca kind of playing favoritism with their two sons, kind of deceive deceiving Isaac. And then we have Jacob and Esau and Jacob deceives esau. Now Jacob has this birthright, and then he's kind of getting what he put out there. And if you just backtrack all of this, you see that, man, this lineage, like, there's some great things and then they they do what's, you know, they they follow the Lord for sure. And just because you follow the Lord doesn't mean that you get it right 100% of the time. You definitely have to work through your heart motives and all that stuff. But just to reflect back on this family line, we see that eat and lying and manipulation and conniving kind of run the family, and it doesn't really stop here. So you read, all of these sons are born from this place of I'm going to have the upper hand with my sister so that my husband will love me. I'm going to have the upper hand with my sister so that I can have children, and all of these men born into that. And we'll see how this story continues on for us. But goodness, it makes me just so aware of what we're born into. That story matters. Our family stories matter. And so we have generational trauma. I mean, everybody has them. Everybody has something that you want to continue in your family that you're really proud of, that you really love. And then there's some things that you don't. I mean, I feel like everybody's got at least a list of three. And so I think that it's a good time to just pray over our family.

Prayer:

So, Father, I thank you for our family line. I thank you that we come from two different families that aimed together, two different people, and the stories that they brought into their own marriage and their parenting styles. Whether they really did try their best or they didn't try at all or they really consulted you or they really didn't consult you at all. Lord, I just pray that you would give us your eyes and how you see them and how you saw those situations. Lloyd that we would seek out healing for the things that we need to dive deeper in and that need longer processing and longer healing, and that we would seek out the people who have the tools for that, that you would guide and direct us for that. Lord, I also just pray that we would have grace in our hearts, Lord, and forgiveness in our hearts. I know that's tricky and that's tough and that doesn't feel fair. But, God, I thank you that you are not asking us to do something that you weren't willing to do and something that you don't do constantly. Something that you do do constantly. And I just thank you that we don't have to do in our own strength. We do not have our own strength to forgive and to bless and to be kind and to love. But it's in your strength and by your hand and by your might that we can even have the access to do those things. And so, Lord, I just pray that you would fill us with your grace and your love and your kindness to extend towards those who went before us, whether they are still with us or they've passed. I pray that there would just be this inner working in our heart where we can seek you above everything else. And God, I just pray that whether we have our own family that we are stewarding and cultivating and creating, or we are believing for that and toiling that soil and that ground, lord, I pray that we would be good stewards of what we have and that you would increase our knowledge, our wisdom, our grace, our love, our capacities. And, Lord, I Just Pray That We Would Have An Awareness of who you are and Your word and that we would carry that we would have a legacy of knowing you and your word and that we'd be truly a people who desire wisdom and love and kindness and mercy. I just thank you for it and it's in your name we pray. Amen.

Announcements:

Dailyaudiobible.com is our website that is a place of connection where you can see what is happening here in the community, how can it get connected and stay connected. So be sure to check that out. If you have prayer requests and things that we as a community can come alongside of you and pray over you, pray with you, you can call in at 800-583-2164. And if you listen through the app, you can record your prayer requests and send them in here, and they get played at the end of every day's. Podcast. That is all for today. I'm China, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Line:

Hey, DAB Chronological, it's Sister A and just want to tell you that God loves you all and I want to pray especially for Debbie. Debbie, you called in on the 4 January 2023 and your prayer just touched my heart so much because God really does love you. And even though what sounds like such a hard trial that you're facing and going through, I know that there's a testimony to come of it and it will show you new dimensions of God's love. He saved you for a reason. You're still here for a reason and that baby has you as a mother for a reason. It says in Matthew 5, it says, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And that your prayer request just reminded me so much of Hannah's request in the Old Testament, where God saw the pureness of heart and the earnest prayer that she laid before Him. And so the DAB family just join me in praying that as Debbie has made her intentions known to the Lord and before all of us, let's just agree that this year, 2023, she will know God's love, that as that child grows in her, she will have a deeper revelation of the love of God. I pray, Debbie, that God sends friends and a support group around you, but I also pray that you will use the community that is here to lift up prayers to know that you are never alone. I love you. God bless you, sis. Praying for you always. Bye bye.

Good morning, DABC. This is Tanya calling in from Suffolk. Today is Sunday, January 15. Amiga, thank you so much for calling back again. I just love, love your words of encouragement that you're given despite of what you're going through. I honestly, I feel in my heart that God is going to really continue to bless you tremendously because you are a woman of God. You love God, you love people and you love to help people. So I once again, I just believe in trusting in God that he would do the same for you. But I'm calling in, I'm asking for prayer on his day. My son, his name is Cameron, he's back in school again. I remember telling you guys that last year he goes to Norfolk State University. And we're just trusting and believing in God that finances is going to work out in his favor for him to continue his studies this semester. I'm just trusting and believing in God for that. So I'm just asking you guys just to keep him in prayer as well, that he will continue to walk the path that God has created for him such a time as this. And in spite of what he's going through, know that God is a deliverer. He just has to continue to hold on. I'm just trusting believing in Him for that. So once again, I ask you guys just to pray for him for finances and that God will continue to keep him and allow him to walk according to the path that God has created. As always, DABC, I see you guys. I love you guys and continue to be encouraged. Have a wonderful day.

Hey, my special DABC fam. This is Kingdom Seeker Daniel. I just wanted to give a shout out to all of the new DABCers out there all around the global campfire. Welcome. We are so glad you made it here and you are indeed in for the journey of a lifetime. So buckle up, lean back and enjoy the ride. So glad you guys made it. Let me just pray for a couple of DABCers if I can. Father, I come on behalf of Renee, your daughter, who is facing homelessness, in need of shelter and provision. Father, will you please open the floodgates for our sister and allow her to find all that she needs in shelter as well as to maintain her employment status. God, will you bless your daughter? This is nothing but a small thing to you God, and we're praying that you would give her what she needs so that she can continue to maintain her livelihood in a safe manner. And we thank you for how you will provide for Renee in Jesus name. Then Lord, we lift up Susan from South Carolina whose friends 16 year old daughter Grace has gone missing in Alaska. Thank you God that you see her, you know where she is. We're asking that she would be safe, that she would be found, that she would be brought home intact. And we thank you God, that you are looking after her and watching over her to care for her safety and her well being. God, let your will be done in the lives of your people in Jesus name, amen.

Good morning family. It's Inge from Denmark. Happy New Year you all. I so enjoy starting all over again. It is so amazing. Jill and China, I cannot express to you what a gift it was to me when I heard that you were continuing the readings together. You complement each other in the most beautiful way. I treasure and enjoy and never take for granted your voices on my phone, in my head. I thank God for the both of you, for your entire family every single day. So it's great to be back in stories, back in the beginning, and it's also great to hear all of these familiar voices. I get such a feeling of family. There are also a lot of new voices, new stories, new prayer requests. Welcome, everybody, to the family. Snuggle in. Pour up your coffee and buckle up because you're in for a worldly kind of rollercoaster trip. It's going to be amazing. There are a lot of voices that I miss and I'm just going to randomly name you. I would really love an update. Joy from Mexico. Faith-filled Mama and Moses. Emmy from Illinois. Diane Olive and Jeff Brown. Vincent Vinny from Connecticut. Where are you? Marla from Albuquerque. I know it's been a few years, but maybe you're back. And Victoria Soldier. And then Cody from Utah. I think of you so often in your situation.

04/23/2021 DAB Transcript

Judges 1:1-2:9, Luke 21:29-22:13, Psalms 90:1-91:16, Proverbs 13:24-25

Today is the 23rd day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian, and it is a pleasure and a joy to come around the Global Campfire together and just find our place, do what we do, exhale, settle in to the safe oasis that we create for ourselves as God's word comes washing into our lives. So, it is a pleasure and joy to be here with you today. And we’re turning the page. We’re actually moving into some new territory in the Old Testament. We conclude the book of Joshua yesterday which leads us to the…well….to the first chapter of the book of Judges.

Introduction to the book of Judges:

And judges is what comes next. We can think from the title of Judges that it's a big book of judgment, right? Like, this is one of those books in the Bible where you don’t want to read it because it’s nothing but judgment. That's…that's what's going on here. Let's, since we’re moving into new territory, let’s just really briefly look back at where we've been. We met Abram. We saw him become Abraham. Abraham's story is essentially the origin story of the Hebrew people. So, Abraham and then the generation of Isaac and the generation of Jacob. Jacob being Abraham's grandson. Jacob has a couple of wives and a couple of concubines thrown into the mix and there's 12 children born. And we remember all that between Rachel and Leah, the battle of the sisters over the children. And these children, they're going to grow up and become tribes. I mean they will…like they will start tribes. Jacob's name is changed to Israel. And, so, his children are the children of Israel. One of those kids was named Joseph and we followed a long path with Joseph being trafficked into slavery and ending up in Egypt. And over the course of time ending up second-in-command in Egypt when a famine comes that reunites the family. They thought Joseph was dead. Jacob thought his son was long dead, but they are reunited in life, which is how the children of Israel made it to Egypt. And then after Joseph dies, they flourish in the land of Egypt and become a very populous mighty people, but they are enslaved by the Egyptians. So, four centuries later, so they’re in slavery for 400 years. That's quite a long time to establish the status quo, this is when we meet the man, Moses. Moses, we met in a basket in the river and Pharaoh's daughter raises him then he has to flee because he kills an Egyptian. He gets married in the wilderness then he sees a burning Bush that is not consumed, and he meets with God and God sends him back to set the people free. Moses wants nothing to do with it but in the end, he obeys, and Moses and his brother Aaron lead the people. And that's when we go through all of the plagues and the Exodus from Egypt. And then they began their wilderness journey. And it was supposed to be a lot shorter than it ended up being. But they got to the very very precipice of entering into the promised land and the spies came back and said, “we can’t do it. There's giants in the land. It's…it's a great land but we can't win”, which doomed an entire generation to continue to learn the message of the wilderness. And we spoke a lot about our own…our own wilderness journeys as we wandered in the wilderness with the children of Israel. Then they made it to the banks of the Jordan River. There's all kinds of stuff that happened in between there, we remember, but then Moses got all the people together and he gave them three discourses, three speeches, that comprise the book of Deuteronomy, the things that Moses's needs the people to know and that he needs to know that he said out loud before he dies. And, so, they listened to that and then Moses died, became a part of history. Joshua takes the leadership over Israel, leads the people across the Jordan River. The first city of conquest is Jericho. We remember all of this and then they are at war basically. All of the different tribes and kings of the land, they attack Israel, and Israel keeps winning and they begin to settle the land. Then Joshua brings everybody back together at Shechem and that's where these famous words, “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” come from. And the people say they will serve the Lord. They…they renew the covenant and Joshua tells them, “you are a witness…your lives are…are a witness against you if you don't obey this. That's what brings us to judges. So, we will begin the book of Judges and realize that judges were what came next in the leadership of Israel. They had had a profit in Moses lead them. They had a profit and Joshua lead them. Once they're gone and all of the generation that knew them died off, then there's an emerging generation that doesn't know exactly what to do. They are all tribes doing whatever seems right in their own eyes. And we will begin to see that some of the things that they're doing that they think is right in their own eyes isn't and will see a slide beginning to happen. And, as the people become oppressed, they cry out to God and a judge rises up to lead the people. And some of these judges are our pious and committed to God and some of these judges have some strange ways of doing things but God uses them in this time. So, as we read the book of Judges, we will be passing through several centuries of time. The book of Judges sort of covers an in between period. So, Moses and Joshua are gone, and then there's the period of the judges, which will lead us to the period of the monarchy. Like, when the period of the judges reaches its end, the people are going to want a king. They don’t want a judge anymore, they don’t want a prophet, they want a king. So, it won’t be too long after we conclude the book of Judges that we will be entering into that, that time of the monarchy of ancient Israel. So, that's kind of the lay of the land. That's where we've come from, that's how we got here to page 1 of the book of Judges. So, let's dive in. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Judges chapter 1 verse 1 through 2 verse 9.

Prayer:

Father we thank You for Your word. We thank You bringing us into this new territory in the book of Judges. Holy Spirit come. Plant the words of the Scriptures into our lives. Allow them to till the soil and plant good fruit, that the harvest may be bountiful, the fruit of the spirit in our lives may be bountiful. Help us to see ourselves in these stories. Help them to be mirrors into our own souls into the motives and the brokenness in our own lives. And even as we begin to turn into the passion narrative in the gospel of Luke, even as we've read of the preparations for this last meal before suffering and the plot to betray You, our Lord, we enter the story once again, the story of a love so profound that it has no equal, a love that is drawn us to it like a moth to a flame. And, so, as we watch this story unfold again Holy Spirit come and help us to enter into it with a profound amount of gratitude. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it is home, its home base for us. Of course, everything that's at the website can be accessed using the Daily Audio Bible app as well by using the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner. So, yeah, stay tuned stay connected in any way that you can. This journey that we are on…I mean I say that every day almost because it's important to remember it every day. This is a year-long journey that we’re on step-by-step day by day. And a year in our lives brings all kinds of triumphs and challenges. And, so, what we’re connected to, what we’re tethered to, what is our anchor is the thing that moors us, or if gives us foundation when winds are blowing pretty strong. And, so, staying connected to the journey day by day step-by-step in the Scriptures brings foundation. And knowing that were not in this alone, that it's not this solitary endeavor, that thousands, tens of thousands of us, all over the world are on the same page moving through this together it makes the difference. And, so, stay connected in any way that you can.

Check out the Community section either in the app or on the web.

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If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, I can't possibly thank you enough. I can't possibly like…I’ve tried so many times, the vocabulary fails, the gratefulness, the awe that all of these years all of these days, day by day, step-by-step we’ve been not just doing this for a year, but this is the 16th year every single day, seven days a week without missing a single day. So, I'm in awe that…that we’re in this together because we wouldn't be here if we weren’t. So, if that is life-giving to you than 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 the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

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

My name is Darla from Pennsylvania this is my first time calling. I just wanted to reach out to the man. I was listening on April 16th and the man said that he felt like he wasn't even worthy or able to be helpful or something along those lines and my heart just kind of sank because I know…I know how that feels and I just wanted to let you know that I'm praying for you in Jesus’ name.

Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Alobia from New Mexico this is my first time ever reading with you guys and so far, it has been a fantastic time. I'm really happy that I'm here. I'm happy that I found you guys. But this is my first time ever doing this kind of thing, but I do want to ask for some prayers if it's not too much. I am struggling with my relationship. He's not equally yoked with me and I recently got back into my religion and I stopped doing the things that I wasn't supposed to be doing and our relationship changed a lot and we got through it a little bit but now he proposed, and I'm just confused. I don't know where to go. I don't know what to do anymore. I…I wanna be with this person but I know I shouldn't be with him when we're not equally yoked. But at the same time, I can't bring myself to like break-up with him. This might seem like something that's not really important, but I've been dating this person for three years and I'm confused and I'm not sure what to do. I've been praying about it, but I would like to hear from other people too. But I also want to give thanks for this community. I'm not sure if a lot of people will hear it. Well, we'll see, but I hope that you guys can pray for me and pray for my situation. But thank you. I'm sending my love out to all of you and have a good rest of your day.

Good afternoon DAB family God bless you all. I don't know your name I think you said Ramona or Mona from South Cali. You're 32 years old single mom of an 8-year-old boy with stage four kidney failure. You are on dialysis three times a week; 31 surgeries now has cancer. You called in praying for an encouraging because of James from Fort Worth TX who lost his daughter last year January 27th of 2020 and you're asking for prayer so that you may have God's peace, God's joy, God's healing because your 8-year-old son told you it's OK for you to go to heaven so that you don't suffer anymore. My dear sister I cannot imagine that and I'm standing alongside you in your tears. I'm praying for you and I'm believing that there’s nothing that God cannot do. There is nothing that God cannot do. God can turn this around in the name of Jesus. I am declaring healing over your body inside out I am declaring totally healing in your body. I am declaring functioning kidneys in the name of Jesus. I am binding those cancer cells to be done to be eradicated from your body in its entirety in the name of Jesus. I am declaring you healed by the blood of Christ. I'm loosening the healing powers of Jesus over you from the crown of your head to the soul of your feet in Jesus’ name. Amen. Esther from Orlando.

Hi, I'm calling in to pray for Lacey, Lacey, I believe and the Lilies. Lacey I just listened to the broadcast on the 17th, and I heard your prayer. I too suffer from a disease that won't let me fully extend some of my body and I also took hope in that same reading that you did. Keep reaching sister. God will straighten you up. I know that it doesn't seem possible right now but just keep reaching for heaven and you will reach it. We love you.

Good morning DAB family this is Doctor John from Illinois listening this morning at 4:18. Just wanna pray this morning for Chad who's suffering depression, anxiety, and fear but he knows enough to call, he knows enough to ask for help. And I listened to this brother pray for his nephew Jeff, the firefighter who’s sick with covid still experiencing troubles with it. And I guess my one encouragement the one…makes my heart just overwhelmed with I believe it's Ramona from Southern California she's a 32-year-old woman 8-year-old son, she's experiencing kidney failure, having some other diagnostic problems. And I'm just overwhelmed at her heart toward other people though. And she said something really sparked my heart. And she said even in the midst of this affliction God is still God. He’s still righteous and He’s still holy and He’s still just. And she's in desperate straits and yet she cries for help for other people and lifting up other people encouraging other people, that's her faith. Her joy is in the Lord. So, let's take a note from this. Family let's pray for others. Let's put others above ourselves. God hears every single prayer, and he knows our hearts before we even ask. So, thank you Brian and Jill again for this wonderful place that we can come together, this wonderful family that we share each other’s hearts and needs. This is the love of God acted out.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Stan from Maryland. My heart was impressed to pray for Trent. I believe he was on the August 18th prayer request. Dear father lift up Trent. He…he said is in a dark abyss of depression and despair and fear. Father God I pray that You would put a hedge of thorns all around Trent so that the influences of the evil one causing him to despair and to be fearful and to be depressed would lose interest and leave him. And Father, You know Trent’s heart. He's trying to draw near to You. So, I pray Father that You were drawing near to him. When You're in that dark place it's hard to see any light. So, I pray Father that You would illuminate Your presence in Trent’s deep soul s0peaking to him as he needs to hear so that he knows that You love him deeply, that You will lift him up and that You…that he can rely on You. As a matter of fact, Father relying on You is the only way because we are all confused Father God about what our future is and about what our perception of reality is. So, I pray these things for Trent in the name of Jesus. Amen.

One Body, One Spirit; a Queer Perspective

Genesis 30:20-24 Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good dowry; now my husband will honor me, because I have borne him six sons”; so she named him Zebulun.  Afterwards she bore a daughter, and named her Dinah.  Then God remembered Rachel, and God heeded her and opened her womb.  She conceived and bore a son, and said, “God has taken away my reproach”; and she named him Joseph, saying, “May the Lord add to me another son!”

Today’s readings at Mass: Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15; Ephesians 4:1-16; and John 6:24-35

It’s been a long time since I’ve been inspired to write anything, especially related to Christianity and church.  It’s been over a year now since I’ve written anything on these subjects but now that I have been feeling filled again, as well feeling that I’ve found my place in light of my transition; I’m feeling inspired to write again now.  So today’s reflection I’ll be sharing is a bit of a reflection of the sermon I heard at church today, today’s scripture reading at church, and some personal study to find/make a role for myself in life.  

To illustrate my line of thought, I’m going to begin with where I started falling down the rabbit hole to get where I’m at.  This week I’ve been particularly reflective of my transition since it had been nearly one year since I came out as trans.  For those that know me personally, you all know the life changes I’ve made since then for the better and how I’ve really been blossoming (I won’t be touching too much on those here so that aren’t familiar with my blossoming, please have some faith that I have).  So where does every modern day search for guidance begin, especially concerning obscure topics?  Of course, my handy dandy Google search on my phone for transgender and the Bible.  Had to weed through the bullshit at the top of the search talking about how “transgenderism” (sic) is a sin.  I then found the a few transgender Christian pages mentioning about how there’s a connection between eunuchs and transgender people and how the apostles were specifically taken by the Holy Spirit to the eunuchs to include them in the Church just as they are.  I had heard this before and while this is nice, it really doesn’t answer where I fit in with the Church and in relation to God.  It’s reassurance that I’m not some sort of mistake or freak, but it doesn’t explain why I’m not.  Something caught my attention though on the page though of a story I hadn’t heard of before.  The story of Dinah.  Dinah was a daughter of Leah who gets briefly mentioned in Genesis 30 and becomes a bit of a story arc later in Genesis for her brothers.  While her mention of her birth is brief in the beginning of Genesis, there is apparently a few Midrash (Jewish exegesis and interpretations) surrounding her.  One of note and related to this article is that in the womb Dinah was a male but Leah prayed to God for a daughter so she would not be greater than Rachel and God granted her prayer.  The point of this teaching was that we should always pray to God no matter what and prayer is never in vain (Berkahot 60a for those curious of the source).

So this particular story is what I’ve been seeking.  Not only something to illustrate inclusion but a story that illustrates that trans people are a gift.  Now I know some of the people who follow and read this are definitely going point out how sexist this is and of course it’s sexist by our standards, it’s some millennia removed from us, but this is inspiring because it shows that religious thinkers and teachers were willing to include people like me into the faith, not as joke or an example of “sin” but as illustrating the power and greatness of God.  While a very inspiring story and significant to me, I was having a hard time of figuring out how to put this significance into words.  And that’s how today fits in.

Today’s scripture readings and sermon brought this story into a bigger picture for me today.  The focus of the sermon were on the Letter to the Ephesians.  Deacon Chris told an anecdote  about her time as a swim coach to illustrate one different talents, gifts, and perspective being channeled into being one body and spirit and how it relates to the church.  While I may not have a total grasp of what gifts I bring to the table at my Church and to Christian community as a whole, I understand that I and other queer people bring gifts that have been over looked and neglected and it’s time for those gifts to be recognized as such.  Again to tie into scriptural perspective these gifts have been the stone that the builders have rejected but we are now recognizing that didn’t need to be.  To me, this is what it means to be a part of a Living Church and worshipping a living God.  It means that our perspective grows and adapts in light of natural and revealed truth, that we recognize our humanity and limitedness in light of God and that Christ is continuously showing us how the Kingdom of God is now.  

While the Exodus reading wasn’t addressed in today’s sermon, I believe it ties in with not with today’s lesson, but also with current events.  We have many pharaohs, literally and figuratively, over us today.  Those of us that are “the least” tend to have more pharaohs over them than others.  I do honestly believe a change is going to be taking place that will free us from many of these pharaohs in our life.  Like the ancient Israelites, there will be sacrifices for that freedom and we may find ourselves longing for that security of being servants to those pharaohs, of going back to “the way things were”.  While for the Israelites, it was food; for us it may be food, it may be some other form of comfort; but life will continue on or to quote Jurassic Park, “life finds a way”.  God provided food in way of manna for them; for us in our wilderness that we wander through, God is providing in some shape or way.  I am not ignorant of the struggles or hardships that many go through and how it seems that prayers go unanswered or food not provided for.  Many of these problems are results of the pharaohs in our lives, literal pharaohs who are and will be dealt with if they do not let the Defender of orphans and widows’ people go.  Justice will flow like a river and the corruption will be obliterated by whatever force God decides to do this with, whether it be by climate change, by open revolt, or some force yet to be seen.

Tying in with today’s gospel reading, Jesus says that he’s the true bread of heaven.  That all who partake of him will never perish.  While yes there is one meaning that be taken away from this of worshipping Jesus and you’ll live forever in heaven; I don’t think that’s what was meant here.  I think what was meant here was that following his way of life you would never die on the inside; you would never be meaningless.  During this time, if you were considered a shamed, you were pretty much regarded as dead.  Jesus himself was a shamed person, he was literally the child of an unwed teenage mother born in a filthy barn.  While bread sustains the body, we need more than bread; we need meaning and purpose, a recognition of our humanity.  While the Church history has been particularly nasty to queer people, secular culture isn’t completely off the hook.  While we are no longer considered mentally ill, our stories and lives are packaged and shipped as products to be consumed to an audience that is hungry for our stories, and this wouldn’t be a problem if our stories were actually told.  What’s typically packaged as queer perspectives are pre-packages assumptions and prejudges about how others think we live our lives in a way that pigeon holes us as just “queer” and nothing more to us.   While I am proud of being a queer and trans, these are just aspects of myself, I would dare even say Sephiroths as long as no one here saw me as being blasphemous for using such a description.  These terms do describe me and are a major part of who I am but they are not me in my totality.

As we come together as one body and one spirit we create a more holistic picture of not only who God is but also what it means for his Kingdom to be here now.  Many parts, one body.  Many perspectives, one spirit.  I know that my perspective is quite limited and while I may be very knowledgeable; I know that in the grand picture my thoughts are a drop in the bucket.  But many drops, will fill a bucket.  Many snowflakes create an avalanche.  What is regarded as worthy will be considered shameful and what is shameful will be worthy.  This is the first will be last and the last will be first.  I’m ready now to share my voice as part of the church to and contribute to a fuller picture of who God is and what the Kingdome is like.  I hope that other queer people of faith will join me in name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Amen

Looking at The Bigger Picture (Genesis 29:14 – 30)

 Hey Cortana, (I’m still thinking of a name)

And yes Cortana is a virtual assistant created by Microsoft that helps get things done. I consider her as my laptop buddy, hence it’s her I address my daily thoughts and write-ups to. Why Cortana? That is for another write-up.

Today my Quiet Time took me to the well-known Bible story on Jacob’s love for Rachel and how he tolerantly worked in total for 14 years to marry her. Seeing how Laban betrayed him, I trust he was not an easy man to work with. 7 years of labouring plus an added 7 years, now that is a long time and I was here gasping aww. Now, this is love and how disappointed he must have felt. (I’m sure Jacob would be singing Ed Sheeran’s song Perfect if he was in the 21st Century)

But today I saw a different meaning to the story for which I am thankful for. The agony Leah must have gone through. Staying married to a man who you KNOW does not love you. The anguish and the pain of continuously trying to let him notice you so you bear him sons and still to no avail. She must have really been affected by it and it was a difficult time for her. Being the older sister and knowing your husband favours the younger one the most. Leah had weak eyes so I’m guessing she was not exactly beautiful since Rachel is described as having a lovely figure and was beautiful. (If Leah had her way, she would be singing Eminem’s Love the way you lie featuring Rihanna)

Leah bore Jacob four sons. Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. With her first three sons, she focused more on her pain and her effort to still win her husband’s attention. She chose the name Reuben “because the Lord has seen my misery. Surely my husband will love me now”. The second born she chose Simeon, “because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too”. And then came Levi, “now, at last, my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons”. I noticed that her sons were an end to win Jacob’s heart but my favourite one among them all and what caught my attention was Judah! Judah means, “This time I will praise the Lord.” Mind you, I burst out laughing when I read that part of the Bible, that Leah had realized, finally it is all about God and Jacob didn’t count.

The story makes me more thrilled that eventually, it was Judah’s lineage (Leah’s son) that Jesus, our Messiah came from and oh one of my unprecedented favourite people in the Bible David also came from. Another part that warms my heart is in verse 41 when God saw that Leah was not loved, He enabled her to conceive. No matter what we go through and the circumstances we face, although it sounds very far fetched, believe me, God knows. We might not feel Him working, but He is. Who would have thought the woman who was not loved, will be the one whose lineage our Saviour will come from? It tarries most times, trust me I know what I am talking about, but His eyes are on the sparrow and He watches us. He knows our misery, where our tongues fail, and we do not know what to say, He knows our hearts.

Whenever it feels tough, praise Him and be thankful. Whenever we feel like giving up, tell Him “Lord I still know the plans you have for me, it is difficult now, but I know your masterplan is the best. In the end, Praise Him.”

PS: In the end, it was Leah who Jacob honoured and buried in the family grave plot with Abraham and Sarah. God will lift us up in the end.

to know the real God

and be known by Him, our Father and Creator.

A treasured point Paul makes in his Letter of Galatians with Today’s reading in chapter 4:

Let me show you the implications of this. As long as the heir is a minor, he has no advantage over the slave. Though legally he owns the entire inheritance, he is subject to tutors and administrators until whatever date the father has set for emancipation. That is the way it is with us: When we were minors, we were just like slaves ordered around by simple instructions (the tutors and administrators of this world), with no say in the conduct of our own lives.

But when the time arrived that was set by God the Father, God sent his Son, born among us of a woman, born under the conditions of the law so that he might redeem those of us who have been kidnapped by the law. Thus we have been set free to experience our rightful heritage. You can tell for sure that you are now fully adopted as his own children because God sent the Spirit of his Son into our lives crying out, “Papa! Father!” Doesn’t that privilege of intimate conversation with God make it plain that you are not a slave, but a child? And if you are a child, you’re also an heir, with complete access to the inheritance.

Earlier, before you knew God personally, you were enslaved to so-called gods that had nothing of the divine about them. But now that you know the real God—or rather since God knows you—how can you possibly subject yourselves again to those paper tigers? For that is exactly what you do when you are intimidated into scrupulously observing all the traditions, taboos, and superstitions associated with special days and seasons and years. I am afraid that all my hard work among you has gone up in a puff of smoke!

My dear friends, what I would really like you to do is try to put yourselves in my shoes to the same extent that I, when I was with you, put myself in yours. You were very sensitive and kind then. You did not come down on me personally. You were well aware that the reason I ended up preaching to you was that I was physically broken, and so, prevented from continuing my journey, I was forced to stop with you. That is how I came to preach to you.

And don’t you remember that even though taking in a sick guest was most troublesome for you, you chose to treat me as well as you would have treated an angel of God—as well as you would have treated Jesus himself if he had visited you? What has happened to the satisfaction you felt at that time? There were some of you then who, if possible, would have given your very eyes to me—that is how deeply you cared! And now have I suddenly become your enemy simply by telling you the truth? I can’t believe it.

Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God’s grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important.

It is a good thing to be ardent in doing good, but not just when I am in your presence. Can’t you continue the same concern for both my person and my message when I am away from you that you had when I was with you? Do you know how I feel right now, and will feel until Christ’s life becomes visible in your lives? Like a mother in the pain of childbirth. Oh, I keep wishing that I was with you. Then I wouldn’t be reduced to this blunt, letter-writing language out of sheer frustration.

Tell me now, you who have become so enamored with the law: Have you paid close attention to that law? Abraham, remember, had two sons: one by the slave woman and one by the free woman. The son of the slave woman was born by human connivance; the son of the free woman was born by God’s promise. This illustrates the very thing we are dealing with now. The two births represent two ways of being in relationship with God. One is from Mount Sinai in Arabia. It corresponds with what is now going on in Jerusalem—a slave life, producing slaves as offspring. This is the way of Hagar. In contrast to that, there is an invisible Jerusalem, a free Jerusalem, and she is our mother—this is the way of Sarah. Remember what Isaiah wrote:

Rejoice, barren woman who bears no children,

shout and cry out, woman who has no birth pangs,

Because the children of the barren woman

now surpass the children of the chosen woman.

Isn’t it clear, friends, that you, like Isaac, are children of promise? In the days of Hagar and Sarah, the child who came from faithless connivance (Ishmael) harassed the child who came—empowered by the Spirit—from the faithful promise (Isaac). Isn’t it clear that the harassment you are now experiencing from the Jerusalem heretics follows that old pattern? There is a Scripture that tells us what to do: “Expel the slave mother with her son, for the slave son will not inherit with the free son.” Isn’t that conclusive? We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

The Letter of Galatians, Chapter 4 (The Message)

and paired with this is chapter 46 in the book of Genesis where we read of Joseph reuniting with his father Jacob (who was renamed Israel):

So Israel set out on the journey with everything he owned. He arrived at Beersheba and worshiped, offering sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

God spoke to Israel in a vision that night: “Jacob! Jacob!”

“Yes?” he said. “I’m listening.”

God said, “I am the God of your father. Don’t be afraid of going down to Egypt. I’m going to make you a great nation there. I’ll go with you down to Egypt; I’ll also bring you back here. And when you die, Joseph will be with you; with his own hand he’ll close your eyes.”

Then Jacob left Beersheba. Israel’s sons loaded their father and their little ones and their wives on the wagons Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They arrived in Egypt with the livestock and the wealth they had accumulated in Canaan. Jacob brought everyone in his family with him—sons and grandsons, daughters and granddaughters. Everyone.

These are the names of the Israelites, Jacob and his descendants, who went to Egypt:

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.

Reuben’s sons: Hanoch, Pallu, Hezron, and Carmi.

Simeon’s sons: Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jakin, Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman.

Levi’s sons: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

Judah’s sons: Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah (Er and Onan had already died in the land of Canaan). The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.

Issachar’s sons: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron.

Zebulun’s sons: Sered, Elon, and Jahleel.

These are the sons that Leah bore to Jacob in Paddan Aram. There was also his daughter Dinah. Altogether, sons and daughters, they numbered thirty-three.

Gad’s sons: Zephon, Haggi, Shuni, Ezbon, Eri, Arodi, and Areli.

Asher’s sons: Imnah, Ishvah, Ishvi, and Beria. Also their sister Serah, and Beriah’s sons, Heber and Malkiel.

These are the children that Zilpah, the maid that Laban gave to his daughter Leah, bore to Jacob—sixteen of them.

The sons of Jacob’s wife Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph was the father of two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, from his marriage to Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. They were born to him in Egypt. Benjamin’s sons were Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim, and Ard.

These are the children born to Jacob through Rachel—fourteen.

Dan’s son: Hushim.

Naphtali’s sons: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shillem.

These are the children born to Jacob through Bilhah, the maid Laban had given to his daughter Rachel—seven.

Summing up, all those who went down to Egypt with Jacob—his own children, not counting his sons’ wives—numbered sixty-six. Counting in the two sons born to Joseph in Egypt, the members of Jacob’s family who ended up in Egypt numbered seventy.

Jacob sent Judah on ahead to get directions to Goshen from Joseph. When they got to Goshen, Joseph gave orders for his chariot and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. The moment Joseph saw him, he threw himself on his neck and wept. He wept a long time.

Israel said to Joseph, “I’m ready to die. I’ve looked into your face—you are indeed alive.”

Joseph then spoke to his brothers and his father’s family. “I’ll go and tell Pharaoh, ‘My brothers and my father’s family, all of whom lived in Canaan, have come to me. The men are shepherds; they’ve always made their living by raising livestock. And they’ve brought their flocks and herds with them, along with everything else they own.’ When Pharaoh calls you in and asks what kind of work you do, tell him, ‘Your servants have always kept livestock for as long as we can remember—we and our parents also.’ That way he’ll let you stay apart in the area of Goshen—for Egyptians look down on anyone who is a shepherd.”

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 46 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, march 13 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

Are contraceptives okay? Biblically? Or should one not use them? Biblically , lol

Bigquestions!

Somecontraceptives are abortifacients. This means that after conception hasoccurred and a new life is formed, the pill is engineered to end that life.Abortion is indisputably a sin because it goes against God’s will, andtherefore I would absolutely call abortifacient contraceptives a sin becausethey act as a form of abortion. They don’t simply prevent a pregnancy, theykill a human life when prevention has failed. I do not consider there to be anyambiguity in that the Bible views that as a sin.

I haven’tdone extensive research into the different types of contraceptives, but fromwhat I can tell, most, if not all, are either 1.) abortifacients or 2.) run therisk of aborting even if they are intended only to prevent conception. That is reallyimportant to keep in mind. It is risky, and the effects could mean ending alife. That is not something to be taken lightly. A lot of people don’t know howthese contraceptives work and don’t realize they can cause an abortion. So, ifthis is convicting to you, I beg you to remember that God is gracious.

Scientificallyspeaking, birth control can also have a long-term negative effect on the bodyand specifically the reproductive system. Any time you are disrupting thenatural processes of the body, it usually comes with a cost. It affects yourbody. With birth control, that can mean it makes it harder for you to getpregnant later on, or, in extreme cases, completely unable. It can put you at ahigher risk for miscarriages, imbalance hormones, and incur other negativeimpacts.

Now, let’stake all of the above information out of the equation for a moment. Let’s saythe pill you’re taking won’t force an abortion, and you’ve done your researchand are willing to risk long-term side effects. Here’s the thing. There arethree things I know the Bible tells us:

1.)    God decideswho lives

It takes amale and a female to make a child, but God is the one who sparks life in itfrom the moment the sperm and egg are joined. Without God, there is no life. Itis not all that uncommon for women to become pregnant on birth control. Theworld views it as an “accident”, but with God, there is no such thing. God isnot limited by human design. The lie of the devil is that we are in control,but in reality, it is God who gives life. Psalm 139:16, “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, thedays fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” If God wants you to have achild, you’re going to conceive, regardless of what measures you take.

2.)    God decides whodoes not live

Nothinghappens that God does not allow. Whether it is a barren womb or a miscarriage,God is in control. We read about such instances of God’s influence in storieslike Rachel and Leah, and how their children were His timing, as were theirlack of children. We read about death in cases like David and Bathsheba, or Joband his children. Still, everything is in God’s timing. In every instance, goodor bad, we can rest assured that God works all things to the good of those wholove Him (Romans 8:28), and again, that all our days were fashioned for us longbefore we were formed. (NOTE: As I wrote this bit about God’s sovereignty Ifound out that my grandpa, presumably an unbeliever, had just died. Makes itrather personal.)

3.)    Takingmatters into one’s own hands has been historically bad

God decideswho live and who dies, and yet, it is often the pride of humanity that says wecontrol our fates. Take a look at Sarah and Abraham. Quite possibly the moststark example of what can happen as a result of not trusting God. They werepromised a child, and yet Abraham and Hagar bore a child in an effort to solvethe problem of Sarah’s infertility. They procreated on their own terms insteadof following and trusting God. Consequently, we are still suffering the effectsof that choice today.

I don’t wantto miss out on the blessings of God because I foolishly decided I knew what was best. Itrust God to give me what He sees best for me. I’m not married now, but one dayI hope to be. I’m not going to use birth control, because I believe God is incontrol. 100% all the time. So, if He gives me eight kids, so be it. I trustthat He will provide me with strength and sustenance for my family. If Hechooses not to give me any children, that’s His decision, not mine. Maybe I’msupposed to adopt instead, or maybe God has different plans for me altogether.I want to rest on the wisdom of God, and not my own faulty ideas.

Proverbs3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on yourown understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him,and He shall direct your paths.”

This is areally controversial subject among Christians, and it’s not my intent to judgeanyone for the choices they’ve made. I just know I want to trust God with mylife, every part of it, and this is how I believe I can best follow Him.

“...because he loved her.” (Genesis 29:15-28)

If I say the word “lectionary,” does that mean anything to you? If it doesn’t, that’s okay, because before I went to seminary, “lectionary” didn’t mean anything to me, either.

 Basically speaking, a lectionary is a series of readings. Specifically, there is a suggested set of scripture readings for every Sunday throughout the year. For every Sunday, there is an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a Gospel reading, and another reading from somewhere else in the New Testament. Sometimes the four readings share a common theme; sometimes, not so much. Some churches read all four scriptures every week; others focus just on one or two. The readings are spread over a three-year cycle, with the idea being that over those three years, you can get a good taste for the whole story of scripture.

 This summer, we’ve been following the lectionary. Specifically, we’ve been following the Old Testament readings from the lectionary – we’ve been following the suggested path through Genesis. And I’ve the lectionary worship planning book put out by the United Methodist Church, to help plan our worship together.

 But when I turned to this Sunday’s pages, I was disappointed.

 This week, the worship planner suggested 71 hymns for today, as well as two anthems and three solos.

 And of those 71 hymns, two anthems, and three solos, there is exactly one – ONE – suggested for the reading from Genesis. One. And even that hymn – it’s a wedding hymn: “When love is found and hope comes home, sing and be glad that two are one… When love has flowered in trust and care…” I’m sorry, but that doesn’t have anything to do with today’s passage: Jacob falls in love with one daughter, but is tricked – after seven years of hard work and waiting – tricked into marrying the other one. “When love has flowered in trust and care”? I don’t think so.

 Not to worry, right, because there are lots of resources online. I pulled up quite a few of my favorites – and friends, nobody there was talking about Genesis, either. It’s as if the idea that anybody would willingly choose to preach this passage is absolutely unheard of – especially when, in today’s reading from Romans, we could hear Paul proclaim, “I am convinced that neither life nor death… nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God” – when, in today’s reading from Matthew, Jesus is telling parables: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed; it’s like a treasure in a field, like a merchant in search of fine pearls” – with riches of scripture like that to work with, who on earth, who in their right mind, would choose to tackle Jacob’s unwanted second wife?

 But here we are. Here we are, face to face with the Leah of the lectionary, the unwanted passage, the scripture nobody wants to talk about.

 My husband and I have had some interesting conversations about this story. When he found out that I was preaching Rachel and Leah, he chuckled – and said, “I sure hope you mention how want goes around comes around.” After all, he said, there’s a certain poetry and irony in this story: that Jacob, who tricked his brother into giving his rights away, who tricked his father into thinking one son was the other, so that he could get his way – Jacob, now, is tricked by his father-in-law, tricked into marrying one daughter when he thinks he’s getting the other.

 Mike thinks it’s hilarious. And not to stereotype too broadly, but that, I think, is the difference between when a man reads this scripture, and when a woman reads it. My husband reads this story, and he thinks of Jacob, and how funny it is that Jacob the trickster gets tricked.

 Mike reads the story and thinks of Jacob and poetic irony. I read the story, and think of Leah and Rachel, the two women caught up in – and hurt by – this game. Jacob and his brother Esau had a rivalry so intense that Jacob had to run for his life; they couldn’t figure out how to make peace with one another. But Leah and her sister Rachel are offered no such escape; they have to find a way to make peace, to share a husband, share a household, share a life together, ‘til death do us part.

 I remember growing up and hearing about Jacob and Rachel’s epic love story. I remember hearing how Jacob agreed to work and to work hard, for seven long years, just for the promise of marrying Rachel, the woman he loved. And I remember thinking just how romantic it was: Jacob saw Rachel, and he fell in love with her on first sight; and he kissed her, he watered her flocks, and he agreed to do so much more – to wait and work, so he might be with her; and those seven years “seemed to him but a few days because of the love he had for her.” And then – oh, what a cruel twist of fate! Jacob and Rachel are cheated out of their honeymoon, but he readily agrees to serve seven years more – fourteen years he worked, just for the chance to love her.

 And I remember being taught: this is how much God loves you. God loves you like Jacob; God loves you on first sight, and God would do anything rather than lose you. God is patient; God’s love is long-suffering, and perseveres, and overcomes obstacles. No matter what twists and turns may come, God still counts them as nothing at all, because of the love God has for you.

 It’s a gorgeous love story; it’s a lovely glimpse of love that is patient and steadfast, love that goes beyond deep sighs and warm fuzzies… it’s a reminder that love takes work, and love takes work over time. It’s a lovely story… unless you factor remember Leah. Leah, the older sister. Leah, with the lovely eyes, who was eclipsed by her sister’s beauty and grace. Leah, who is used by her father, forced into marriage with a man who doesn’t want her, doesn’t love her, and never will. Leah is just a pawn – powerless, she doesn’t ask to be thrust into this situation, but now that she’s here, her very presence becomes a constant irritation for her sister and their husband; Leah didn’t make this mess, but I’m sure she takes the resentment and the blame for it.

 And suddenly, the story is much less beautiful. Hooray for Rachel… but for Leah, there is no happy ending.

 And suddenly, I’m not so sure that I want God to love me like Jacob does: because Jacob’s love is as fickle as the rest of his life. If he loves you, he loves you fiercely – but if he doesn’t, or if you are standing in his way, he has no qualms at all about using you, tricking you, betraying your trust, to get what he wants.

 Leah tries to make the best of things – but still Jacob does not love her. Leah conceives, and she gives Jacob his first son, his first-born and his heir; she names her little boy, “Rueben” – which literally means, “See, a son” – as if to remind her husband which of his wives is bringing forth the future. She thinks – and this is even in the bible – Leah says, “Surely now my husband will love me.”

 Hear the heartache, the desperation, in those words. Leah has fulfilled her role as Jacob’s wife: she has done exactly what a good wife was meant to do: she’s produced a son. But still Jacob has no love for her.

 Leah has another son, and another, while Rachel has none; surely, Leah thinks, surely now, Jacob will see which one of us is the better sister. Or at least, he will find a way to love us both.

 But still Leah was unwanted. Leah was unappreciated. Leah was always unchosen, and always unloved.

 I don’t want a God who loves like Jacob does. I don’t want to be loved at someone else’s expense; I don’t want to be loved – even fiercely and passionately loved – by a God who has no compassion for my sister’s suffering, who cares nothing for her sorrow. I don’t want to be loved by a God who is willing to use people without loving them… I don’t want that kind of love, because I’ll always fear the day is coming when that kind of God will stop loving me.

 The reality is, I’ve been Leah in my life. How about you? I think we all have – we all know how it feels to feel unwanted, to feel like who we are isn’t good enough, and no matter how much we do, it’s never enough.

 I’ve been the last kid picked for the team. I’ve been the runner-up, the one everyone overlooks and no one remembers. I’ve sat, uncomfortable, as I slowly realized I wasn’t wanted. I’ve bitten my tongue, because I’ve known that – if I showed my true colors, I wouldn’t be welcome any more. I’ve faced criticism, for the things I have said, for what I’ve done, for what I’ve failed to do. I’ve been used, by people who were all too happy to take what I could give without a second thought or a backwards glance.

 And I also know that what I’ve been through pales in comparison to the ways so many people around the world continue to be ostracized, attacked, used, even today.

 We live in a world where children are turned out of their parents’ homes because they dared to be honest about who they loved. We live in a world where people are bullied and beaten and killed just for being who they are. We live in a nation built on the backs of people who were enslaved, stolen from their homes and remade as something less than human – a nation built over the graves of the people from whom we stole this land in the first place. We live in a world where families fleeing for their lives are turned away, where we turn a blind eye to the suffering of children, because they’re not our children. We live in a world where people – especially women – continue to be used, by others, used and abusedand even blamed for bringing their suffering on themselves.

 And it’s not just far away. We live, unwelcome, in our own homes. We sit around dinner tables where we fear opening our mouths, because if we’re honest with the people who love us most, they just might not love us anymore. And we even worship in churches that proclaim loudly, on our signs and banners and websites and front doors, “all are welcome” – though we all known the unwritten exceptions… “all are welcome” – but some are more welcome than others; “all are welcome” – but we’d rather have more people like us than people like them; “all are welcome” – but, well, not really, not you.

 We’ve all been Leah, and there are Leahs all around.

 But the good news is that God doesn’t love us like Jacob – reluctantly, refusing to show us affection, no matter how hard we try. If anything, God loves like Leah loves: with a relentless love, a love that keeps trying to bridge the gap, regardless of how many times she is rejected, a love that even offers us her son, to show her love and bind us together – only to find that even this cannot secure our love. But still she loves: unnoticed, unappreciated, unrequited, Leah keeps loving – and God does, too.

 Thank God that God doesn’t love us like Jacob. God loves us like God. God loves us generously, freely, with abundance and persistence; God doesn’t grow weary and God doesn’t give up. God loves us like the God who chooses old men and younger sons, the God who speaks to tricksters and slave girls in the wilderness, the God who makes room for unwanted daughters and jealous wives in the family of the beloved ones.

 The sad truth these days is that too many Leahs have known too many Jacobs... and what’s sadder is that too many Jacobs have hurt and rejected and used and betrayed Leahs and claimed to do it in the name of God. And as much as I like to celebrate that God has room in the story for a guy like Jacob, for a guy full of all kinds of faults and flaws and insecurities – as grateful as I am to know that, even when we mess up, God doesn’t give up on us, and even though we’re not perfect, God can still do great things through us – even though I celebrate that God has a place for all the Jacobs, I’d like to think that we can do better. Jacob knew what it felt like to be the second-place sibling, to have to fight for his place in the family. And it made him bitter, it made him hard… but it could have made him softer; it could have taught him compassion.

 We have all been hurt, excluded, manipulated, and rejected. And that pain can make us hard, or it can move us to do better, to do unto one another better than was done to us, to welcome as God does, and to love as God has loved us.

 In just a few moments, we will gather around the table, to be reminded that God loves us, that God welcomes us all – and to remember that God’s generous welcome cost God everything. We come to be renewed in our identity, to be strengthened, and to be sent out to keep revealing God’s love in the world today. May we be fed, and may we be formed, by God’s self-giving love.

  God, you pursue us with relentless love. You keep loving us, even when we overlook and ignore and reject your gifts. Forgive us. Forgive us for hurting you, and more than that, forgive us for hurting others – especially, Lord, when we have hurt them in your name. Help us to do better. Help us to love as you love: to love with generosity and patience – until all your beloved ones know just how beloved they are. In the name of Christ, who reveals your love, we pray; amen.

To preserve many people alive: The beginnings of the Joseph story and how it points us to Christ

Author’s Note: This post was originally written on January 12, 2017, and posted at my original web site, The MATTrix. As I transition away from that web site, I’m re-posting some things here along the way.

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“As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” — Joseph, Gen 50:20

The careful student of God’s word should always be careful not to assign typology or symbolism to things in Scripture which don’t specifically infer typology or symbolism is at play. In other words, we shouldn’t take just any story from Scripture and say it’s a picture of Jesus in this or that way.

The story of Joseph in Genesis 37-50 has often lent itself such typology or symbolism by some interpreters of Scripture, even when no Scripture in either Old or New Testaments says Joseph is a type of Christ. This has often led to reading into the text of Genesis (eisegesis) more than is actually there, and at the same time missing the point of what is actually there — getting out of the text what the author intended (exegesis).

That said, those words from the last chapter of Genesis, spoken by Joseph, hover over all this first book of the Bible says about his life. Apart from the account of his birth in chapter 30, the story of Joseph really begins in earnest in chapter 37, and while we must be careful about types and symbols, there are definitely some things we learn right away about Joseph which tell us not only about him and his family, but through New Testament lenses we can see how they point us to what God has done for all whom He saves in His Son.

First, Jacob’s preferential love of Joseph is an imperfect picture of God’s sovereign, electing love for all whom He will ever save. Jacob’s favoritism of Joseph was borne of the fact he was the long sought, firstborn son of his favored wife, Rachel. Here the polygamy of Jacob creates problems (every time there is polygamy mentioned among people in Scripture some sort of problem arises). Jacob loved Rachel most and it caused problems with Leah (not to mention the lesser maid/wives, Bilhah and Zilpah). In Genesis 37 Jacob loved Joseph most and it caused problems with the sons of Leah, Bilhah, and Zilpah.

The giving of the varicolored tunic, sometimes called the coat of many colors, but more accurately a distinctive, sleeve coat, only exacerbated the problems already existing between Joseph and his brothers. Sure, it was a sign of the love of his father, but what it represented was all the more odious to the ten older brothers. The giving of the coat probably signified the transferring of the birthright to Joseph, taken away from Reuben, the firstborn son of Jacob by Leah. Reuben had intercourse with Jacob’s wife, Bilhah, in 35:22. If Jacob were to take the birthright away from him, it follows that the firstborn son of his next wife, Rachel, would get that birthright, that position of preeminence, and Joseph did (although he was eleventh in birth order).

So Jacob’s preferential love for Joseph was genuine but wrought with problems and unintended consequences. Still, it points us to God setting His love on a specific people from before the foundation of the world, predestining them to be sons by adoption (Eph 1:4–5).

Second, in Genesis 37 we see the faithfulness of Joseph to his father in such a way that mirrors the obedience of faith (Rom 1:5; 16:26) those who have been saved by God’s sovereign love. In James 2 we are told taught through the rhetorical devices of Jesus’ brother that loving God with all your heart, mind, and strength shows itself in loving your neighbor as yourself. In other words, real faith in Jesus shows itself in works.

Well, the faith of Joseph in God is show in his faithfulness to his earthly father. When Joseph saw the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah not doing well on the job, he knew it hurt his father’s interests and so he brought a bad report about them to Jacob, even when he had to know it would hurt his relationship with his brothers. Faithfulness to his father meant putting his father’s interests first. Likewise, those whose Father is God will seek His interests — first, foremost, and always.

Later on, when the ten older brothers are pasturing their flocks in Shechem, Jacob (the father) sends his son (Joseph) on a mission to see how they are doing and bring back a report to him. Again, let’s be careful not to read more into this than what is there, but again we see Joseph go, in obedience to his father, to see to his father’s interests. It meant going alone… to Shechem (a place last seen as very hostile to the son of promise, Jacob, and his family), but Joseph went, and ended up going to Dothan when he found out his brothers were there. Joseph was faithful to his father.

Third, we see in Joseph how the electing love of the father and resultant faithfulness to the father creates problems with the world. Jacob favored Joseph (again, imperfectly). Joseph loved his father and was faithful to him. That produced friction with brothers who floundered on the job. It caused enmity from brothers when Joseph made known dreams he had which pointed to a future in which his brothers, and even his father, his whole family, would be subservient to him.

Then, in Dothan, where the brothers were far from home and far removed from the restraining hand of their father, their sinful hearts accelerated and intensified in treacherous action against their brother. Reuben’s admonition to spare his life and subsequent plan to restore him to Jacob, and also Judah saying not to kill him but sell him into slavery notwithstanding, the brothers hated Joseph to the point of death.

Just as friendship with the world is hostility with God (Jas 4:4), we see both in Jesus and here in Joseph that friendship with God is hostility with the world. The previous and future actions of Joseph’s brothers show that probably not all of them trusted in the God of their father yet, or at the very least, their faith was a very immature faith. So when the one who was faithful acted in accordance with that faithfulness, they hated it and acted out against him.

They wanted to put an end to his dreams. There is no way they would allow those dreams to come to pass. They would not bow down to Joseph, so they through him down into a pit, ultimately selling him into slavery to Ishmaelites.

Likewise, Jesus, who was the favored, beloved Son of His Father, was absolutely faithful to His Father’s interests. That faithfulness caused innumerable problems with His brethren according to the flesh, the Jews. One of them outright betrayed Him.

Just as Joseph’s brother’s treachery before their father, comforting him in the “death” of Joseph even as they were responsible for it, many Jews continued to play a religious game before God, an utterly hypocritical game (as many professing Christians continue to do today).

Jesus, like Joseph, was carried off out of sight. Jesus to a tomb, Joseph to slavery. But both would show up again… to preserve many people alive. Through Joseph the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — those God would ultimately constitute as a nation — were being saved, to say nothing of the fact God preserved Egypt through famine through Joseph, and not just Egypt, but outsiders, like Canaanites, like Jacob’s family, who were brought in (perhaps a picture of Gentiles being brought into salvation via the gospel).

Through Jesus, of course, God would preserve many people alive, saving all who will ever repent of their sins and entrust themselves to Christ.

So while should be careful not to say Joseph was a type of Christ or even a symbol of Christ, and while we should be careful not to read in what isn’t there, when we take the text of Genesis 37 on its face, with fuller revelation now than Jacob and Joseph had then, we can see  glaring similarities in what God did through Jacob’s favorite son and what God would later do through His own only begotten Son.

Prelude To The Perfect Love: 2: Patience

"By Making efforts to speed up the process of something you prayed for, God shows tough love by prolonging the process. "It's" coming, JUST CHILL." -Matthew Sloane 

 When I began my brainstorming process on how I wanted to approach the topic of patience, immediately, I hit a bump in the road. I realized that out of the five topics I chose to write about in this blog series, that "faith" was among them; and there lied my problem. As I began to go into deep thought about the true meaning of patience, faith always came to mind. I came to the conclusion that patience and faith go hand and hand, but still I couldn't differentiate one from the other, and that bothered me. To make my life a little bit easier, I did my research ; and in an article on cfaith.com titled "Faith and Patience: The Power Twins", they broke it down by saying "The power of patience is a working power. When faith has a tendency to waver, it is patience that comes to faith's aid to make it stand. The power of patience is necessary to undergird faith." After reading that, I gained a complete sense of understanding and contentment, and was able to move forward on what I wanted to write about on patience.

  Using the Bible as my point of reference, I would like to bring your attention to the book of Genesis starting with the 29th chapter; focused on the story of Jacob and Rachel. From 1st-5th grade I attended school in a Christian environment;and every year that story was told, we got the watered down version; but now I'm an adult, circumstances are different, and I have a way better understanding of that story now, than I had then. "And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice , and wept." Genesis 29:11 

   At this moment, it was Jacob's first time ever laying eyes on Rachel, and immediately he knew that he was in love with her. Personally I am a believer in love at first sight, but I view it as something extremely rare. I find it rare because there are so many people in this world, men&women alike, who have no problem masking their quality of being tremendously ingenuine at the expense of others, all in efforts to get whatever it is that they want out of them. Whether it's using the person to make someone else jealous, using them for sex, or using them for monetary gain, these ingenuine people carry on with their actions, showing their conflict of interest glimpses of love but never fully commit to them; and once they've gained what they set out to get in the situation, they just leave that person in a selfish manner, not even giving it a thought on how the person they affected may feel physically, mentally, and emotionally after the fact. It's just an "on to the next one" phase for them. Upon reading Genesis 29:11, any thought that I had of Jacob being the type of ingenuine person I just described went away. Men are perceived to be these strong, prideful beings, but Jacob threw all of that out of the window, put himself in a very vulnerable state, and shed tears in the presence of Rachel. He shed those tears because in that very moment, he knew that she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. 

     As we see in so many love stories, there is always the person who tries to compromise the love; and in this case, our compromiser is Laban; Rachel's father. Rachel was the youngest of Laban's two daughters, and since Rachel was his baby girl, it was a sure thing that Laban wasn't going to let her go without putting up some type of wall to slow down the efforts of Jacob trying to marry her; So to make matters less stressful for him, Jacob agreed to work under Laban for 7 years for the right to marry Rachel. "And Jacob served seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her" Genesis 29:20 

    Patience is truly a virtue, and Jacob exemplified that through those 7 years. In today's society, social media is a platform for everything; and it is so often that naturally you run across a Facebook status or a Tweet, with guidelines on how to keep a strong relationship with your significant other; and in most of those "guidelines", some sexual act is always included; which I find to be completely bogus. The Bible doesn't specify whether or not Jacob and Rachel were intimate with each other during those 7 years that Jacob worked towards marrying her, but let's say that they weren't; During those 7 years, Jacob got to know who Rachel truly was. He got to see whether she was a morning person or not, how she handled situations that angered her, how she acted around family, etc.; Jacob was exposed to all of Rachel's flaws, and obviously, he loved every bit of them, because those 7 years of work felt like a couple of days because he was working for his heart's true desire. 

   Once those 7 years were over, Laban brought his daughter to marry Jacob; and once the morning after the wedding passed, Jacob woke up to find out that it wasn't Rachel who he married, but it was Leah, her older sister. Laban deceived Jacob, and to justify his actions, he explained to Jacob how he would be going against tradition by marrying his youngest child before the eldest; So in Laban's way of making things better with Jacob, he agreed to marry him and Rachel the next week, as long as Jacob promised to work for him another 7 years; and of course, Jacob obliged, because he was willing to do anything if it meant being with Rachel. I'm sure Laban's deceitful act aggravated Jacob, but I'm a firm believer in one having to work harder than they've ever have before in order to gain something their heart truly desires; and Jacob did exactly that. He was patient with the entire situation, diligent with everything, and at the end of the day, he got what he worked for; then some. 

  Jacob was now married to both Leah, and Rachel; and it was all because of Laban's deceitfulness. 

   Love is something that grows over time, but with Leah, Jacob's love for her didn't; and could you blame him? He went into the situation with hopes of marrying Rachel, and only Rachel; but instead he found himself married to Rachel and her sister, and placed with the task of loving them both equally; which at the time he could not do. 

   "And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: But Rachel was barren." Genesis 29:31 

   Although Jacob and Leah's marriage happened under strange circumstances, God looked at their marriage like he would any other's, and He took action for the love that Leah wasn't receiving. God blessed Leah with the gift of children. From Genesis 29: 32-35, LITERALLY all Leah did was have children; 4 boys to be exact, which brought Rachel to her breaking point. 

   "And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die." Genesis 30:1

   Love is not familiar with hate or envy, but that is exactly what Rachel felt towards her sister. Instead of being patient in prayer, Rachel took matters into her own hands and ordered her maid to sleep with Jacob. Jacob and the maid produced two boys. Acting on your impatience, choosing to take a shortcut, usually only feels good for a short while; and after that short while is over, your world comes crashing down. You get smacked in the face by your own reality, and in a sense, you find yourself back at square 1, starting all the way over again. Using myself as an example as well; about two years ago, I was involved with a female, who that in high school I had a thing for, but things really never worked out for us because I couldn't get my act together; so like any human being with good sense, she made the wise decision of moving on with her life, and not wasting her time with me. Fast forward to the summer of my freshman year of college, I began to catch feelings for the girl again, but by this time, she was in a relationship with a great guy; but I cared nothing about that. Immediately I began to think of how I was going to get this girl back on my side; Like I do with anything else I want, I go to God with it in prayer, and that was my first mistake. God answers every prayer that His children ask of Him, and He answers them in the manner in which they are asked. 

   Prayer is something that should be 100% pure, but I'm sure like myself, Rachel went to God in prayer; and we both went to him in the spirit of competition, jealousy, and hate; and being the faithful being that He is, God answered our prayers. I ended up getting the girl, and I got her in all of her rage. She had caught me saying some things on social media that pretty much promoted my hopes of her relationship failing. Her and her boyfriend both called me out on it; and rightfully so they should have. I was now in a state of panic because I was staring confrontation in the face, and I hated it; but I had to get through it, and that I did. That whole ordeal taught me that I can't try to force something to happen for me by trying to compromise somebody's genuine love, with my genuine ill will. The girl and her boyfriend are still in a happy, healthy relationship, and I couldn't be more happier for him or her. They're experiencing real love, and I pray that it last them forever. 

   As for Rachel, God blessed her with a son. You would think that after baring a child of her own that she would be content; but nothing was ever enough for her. Rachel often showed greedy, jealous, tendencies. From seeing one of Leah's sons in the field picking out fruit, deciding that she wanted that same exact fruit too, to stealing from her own father; Good was never good enough for Rachel, but God had something planned for her. 

 "And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said to her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass as her soul was in departing (for she died) that she called his name Benani: but his father called him Benjamin." Genesis 35: 17-18 

   Remember back when Rachel told Jacob "Give me children or else I die."? Now we find Rachel giving birth to her second son, and upon giving birth to him, ironically, she passed away. I believe it's never justifiable to say that someone deserved to die;but with Rachel, we can at least say that she had it coming. Rachel was never satisfied with what she had. Her sense of greed, jealousy, and impatience consumed her; and in the end, the one thing she desired to have most out of life, in having children, ended up being what led to her death. 

   The point I really wanted to drive home today is that patience is peace, BUT; impatience is poison. Life is full of twist and turns, but luckily Jesus promised He'll take care of us; giving us a an even better reason to not look for shortcuts, or bring ill will into prayer; but to know that no hard time last forever, and we may not get what we want on our time, but that we'll get it on God's time; and He's a very punctual Man.

  Patience is vital in the making of the perfect love. Patience brings you a sense of contentment, mental strength, and composure, which are all very necessary qualities to have; So I pray that if you don't have it already, that you find your patience, and your peace.

All Love,

Matthew Sloane

4/3/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Judges 10-12

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological, I'm China. Today is the third day of April, welcome. It is so great to be back here with you today reading the word of the Lord to you and with you. So today we are this whole week is Holy Week, but today is Monday, it's day two of Holy Week and this is the day that Jesus clears the temple. And so yeah, just kind of a recap because we're in the Old Testament, this isn't part of the reading plan today but want to steward our hearts in, for this week. And so Jesus yesterday was, he enters into Jerusalem on a colt and they are declaring hosanna, hosanna in the highest. And so the next day he returns with his disciples to Jerusalem and he arrives at the temple and he finds that the courts are full of money changers. He begins overturning their tables, clearing the temple and he tells them, my temple will be a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves or den of robbers. And then Jesus makes his way to Bethany. And so these are some of the scriptures that you can read again because they're in the Gospels. You can read a few of them and get different details that were kind of like the same repeated things, but scriptures that you can read for today's story where we are in Holy Week, you can read Matthew 21:12 through 22, Mark 11:15 through 19, Luke 19:45 through 48, and John 2:13 through 17. So that's where we are in the week of Holy Week right now. But today we are continuing the book of Judges with chapters ten through twelve. And we are in God's Word Translation for this week.

Commentary

Kind of a crazy story mixed with some sadness in it for sure. Again, kind of like I was saying yesterday, within Judges we read about scripturally speaking, we kind of go through them quickly. But with the first judge we read about today, he served for 23 years and the next one served for 22 years. So that's 55 years. Obviously that's not fast, but we're reading scripturally and they're kind of going through them and I believe it's because we want to know the leaders and what they were doing and the family line of it. And then we'll kind of like pause and stop and elaborate on this specific family and what was going on, the dynamic and just some crazy stuff happens. Jephthah has kind of has a crazy story that somewhat resembles or at least just reminds me of the story of Joseph now, not entirely, but here's the similarities. So he's born one of many sons. We don't see necessarily how many, it just says sons. So we know like plural, right? There's more than one. And the brothers are jealous. I don't know if there's jealousy actually, but it's more so of you're, the son of that other woman, right? And we know that with Jacob, sorry, Joseph, he was the son of Rachel, not Leah. And all of Leah's sons hated Rachel's son just because of some things that had already happened in their family line and it was just continuing to be passed on. Anyways, so he gets thrown out and then later on there's war and they're like, actually can you go get Jephthah? And they're like, hey, can you come be our commander so we can wage war against Simon? And he's like, you hated me and you throw me out of my father's house, so why are you coming to me now? So kind of the similarity where they throw him out and then they're actually in need of him, those are the kind of the similarities that wait, this feels very mirroring of the story that we read not that long ago. But anyways, that's kind of like all the similarities that are there. But anyways, so Jephthah is like, if you take me back and fight against the Ammonites the Lords gives me to them, then I'll be your leader. Kind of like if I know that the Lord is using me, if the Lord gives these people over to me, then yeah, sure, I'll be your leader. And so the Lord is a witness between us. The leaders say to Jephthah and then Jephthah goes with them and they make him their leader and commander. And then there's these messages that get sent from Jephthah to the King of Aman. And basically, long story short, what happens there is the king is like, I'm not listening to you. This isn't happening, what you're asking for. No, not doing this. And then the spirit of the Lord came over Jephthah and so he did the things that he was saying, this is what I'm going to do. And then he asks the Lord, hey, if you will really hand them on over to me, whatever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return safely from a model belong to the Lord, I'll sacrifice as a burnt offering, which I'm like. I don't know what he thought was going to come out there. Maybe this is a different way of living than what we do now. Like maybe livestock is in his house. And he was like, yeah, maybe if a bird flies out or a lamb comes out or a chicken. I don't know what he was thinking, or a slave, or if he had a wife or concubine that he didn't like. But if you're going to say that, you have to consider everything that's in your household. And I don't know if he did that or if he considered it and was just like, I don't know. I truly do not know his mindset in that aspect. But if I was going to say, I will give you a bird sacrifice whatever comes out of my house, I would make sure nobody's home and make sure it was, like, a cat that I didn't really own or something. But I guess then that really wouldn't be a sacrifice because it wouldn't mean anything anyways. But I'm also just like, the Lord has shown you that he's with you, so why are you making this deal with the Lord? Like, he's already shown you he's with you. It's already proven. And so the Lord shows up, does exactly what Ephraim says, and then he goes home, and he sees what comes out of his door, and he's immediately grieved. And what's interesting is he's not like, oh, man, gosh. Like, I shouldn't have done this. He tells his daughter, like, oh, you've brought disaster on me. Listen, she didn't know what was happening. She didn't make this foolish agreement, foolish promise to the Lord. Now that he's like, those are his words. But her response is, you've made a promise to the Lord. You got to do it, but let me go away for two months to the mountains. I'm like, Listen, girl, you don't have to come back. But she did. And a burnt sacrifice, like, you don't have to put two and two together to know what happens to her. Awful. And so it's just devastating, too, not only his only daughter, but his only child. And so, gosh, it's so hard to read those types of things. But for me, I'm like, okay, maybe there's more to this contextually that I'm not picking up on or more to the culture, but I'm like, the Lord was already with you. He already showed you that he was with you many times, so why did you feel like you needed to ask Him, hey, if you're truly going to do this, then this is what I'll do. But again, maybe there's more that I don't super understand there.

Prayer

But Lord, I thank you that you are a God who is faithful to his people. And, Lord, I pray that we would recognize that throughout all the generations, throughout all of the Bible, we see Your faithfulness, and we see Your people turning to you and turning from you and calling out when they're in need, willing to repent. But then, as things feel more mundane throwing it out and choosing something else, so I pray, God, that whether we are on the valley or the hilltop or the plateau, that we would recognize that we're in need of a savior, and not just because we need saving from this one thing. We need to be saved. And I thank you that made a way for that to happen. And I just pray that, that would really resonate deep in our hearts today and forevermore, that we all are in need of a Savior, and we can't do it alone. We can't do it apart or outside of you. And I pray that we wouldn't even desire to do that, but that we would desire to be close to you, and it's in your name we pray, amen.

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Dailyaudiobible.com is our website that's the place of connection where you can see what's happening here in the community, how to get connected and stay connected. Something that released just two days ago. On the first is we have a new edition of the trucker hats. So if you go into the shop and you can see that out, there's a new hat and it's pretty cool. It's a camo hat. These are limited edition. Once they are gone, they are gone. So if this is your style, this is your thing, then great. Grab one. You know, someone who loves the camo, feel the type, the pattern, trying to figure out the right word there. Grab one for them as well. But yeah, be sure to check those out. If you have prayer requests and things that we as a community can come alongside of you and encourage you and pray with you, you can call in at 800-583-2164. And if you listen through the app, you can send in your prayer requests through there and they get played or they get sent in and played at the end of every day's podcast. That is all for today. I'm China. I love you, and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Community Prayer Line

Good evening, Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane Olive Brown and Jeff Brown. And tonight we have my daughter Jenny and my granddaughter Mac spending the night celebrating her birthday with her brother and her sister and her sister's husband. And I listened to the reading for the 29th day of March, 202-223-2023, and I wanted to share with you things that I had learned. And the main thing is what Joshua said, you decide what you're going to do. But as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. And I wanted to confess a sin to you that I hadn't been really living for the Lord. I had been eating things I wanted that I shouldn't have. And I needed to repent. I need to repent to all of you there and to my granddaughter for sins that I have committed, I ask your forgiveness. I ask for your prayers. I ask that I would be like Joshua when he said, as for me, in my house, we will serve the Lord. And so I found that I am weak. But also the word says when I'm weak, then I am strong. So please, my brothers and sisters, intercede for me that I will choose wisely. I love you all and I will talk to you again tomorrow. Shalom. Shalom.

Hey, DABC, this is Shannon from Texas. This is my first time calling in and I just wanted to ask you guys to join me in praying for my sister in law. She made the decision to walk away from the faith and is now part of the Muslim community and is leading her daughter down that path. And you'll just it breaks my heart. I try to be the encouraging light, and I try to point her to Christ as much as I can. She has certainly made it be known to her brother that at times I frustrate her. However, every time there seems to be a wall or a battle in their house, she's reaching out. And so I know that it's not me, it's the Lord. And so if you could just join me in lifting her up, that the scales be removed from her eyes, that her heart just be turned back to the Lord, it's just been causing a lot of, I guess, just sadness in my heart. They're coming over today, so it's just fresh on my mind. All right, thank you, DABC. Thank you, Jill. Thank you, China. China, congratulations. And thank you so much, ladies, for the encouragement and the timely words that you allow the Spirit to pour forth. It is definitely making waves, so thank you.

Good morning, DABC family. This is Judy. I haven't called in a while, but this morning, March 30, I listened to Jill and her commentary. And let me tell you, Jill, you are so right. There are so many times where God tells us to do or to go or to be, and we don't listen. We think we have all the answers. I am learning during this Lent season to just sit back, listen to God, read His Word and follow his direction. And let me tell you, my life is so much better for it. I wake up in the morning and I say, God, you take the reins, lead me, guide me, mold me, show me. And then I look at my calendar and my schedule for the day, and if it's within his name, His Word, what he thinks I should do, then I follow it. And I'm so thankful that you reminded me today that, yes, sometimes lots of times I fall short and I don't follow his direction and everything comes out terrible. So thank you, Jill. I love you guys. I love what you do. I love this DABC and DAB family, from the bottom of my heart, continue to do what you do because you're bringing joy around the world. Thank you. Love you guys.

Hi, this is Cynthia from Texas. I'm calling to pray for his little songbird. I just heard your prayer request today and I just love the name that you've chosen. I think it is very good. It's a very good identity to meditate on. You are his songbird. It's so sweet. So my prayer for you is that the Lord would show you the root of your anger, whether it's fear or frustration, what it is, the thing that's causing you to be angry. And I pray that you would give that to the Lord and find a deep freedom. Sometimes when we go through different things, god, like an onion, pulls away our sin and gives us greater sanctification. So don't be discouraged that you're struggling with something that you've struggled with before. Just trust the Lord that he has deeper healing for you, and he wants. To root out the root of that thing, and he wants you to be his little songbird and to be free, to be free in his love, because he delights in you. And he's not upset with you, and he's not afraid of what's going to happen. He's right there with you. So God bless.

1/24/2023 DAB Chronological Transcription

Baby Reagan

[baby Reagan, saying hello to us or praying, so cute] I don't believe it was I don't believe in me. I won't believe me. Okay. You're in me. Beautiful. Yes. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Genesis 35 - 37

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological I'm China. Today's the 24th day of January, welcome. So great to be here with you today. Now, if you heard that voice and you're like, wait, am I listening to DAB Kids? No, that was my daughter, Reagan. She comes to the studio with me every time that I read, and it's very rare that she'll come back here with me, like, just for a second. And we've kind of shared with her like, okay, this is where Mommy works, and this is the microphone Mommy reads in here. And I'll put the headphones on her so she can hear herself. And she never really showed interest before, but this time I just felt like it would be fun to quick record and record her little voice. And she wasn't totally aligned with the microphone, so that's why you can't hear it super well. But just wanted to bless you with her sweet little voice. And that was her saying Amen at the end of that. She loves to pray at every meal time. She'll put her hands together and say Amen. Amen. She wants us to sit down and to pray with her. So I just wanted to share with you how sweet she is and how angelic her little voice is. But welcome. It's great to be here with you today. Today we are continuing our story. We are in Genesis 35 through 37, continuing with the Common English Bible for this week.

Commentary

Very interesting story today. So Rachel has a second son. Remember, I believe it was yesterday's reading, rachel talks about she wants a second son. And I think it was two days ago that we read this. And so now here's her second son, and she dies during childbirth. And so she's buried and Jacob's mourning for her. And we don't really hear anything about Leah, not super sure what's going on with her. There's not really any mention of her in today's reading, but I do know that it's kind of highlighted on Jacob and his sons. Now, Jacob is now Israel, and we read the descendants of Esau, and now we're having this highlighting of Joseph, which is Jacob's son, one of his twelve sons. But this is Rachel's oldest son. And so I'm sure that means a little bit more to him because he really loved Rachel. And so here's this son that has dreams that is being able to put them into to figure them out. And I don't know about you, but if I ever have a dream that I'm like, what in the world does this mean? Typically, it's because typically, if I'm trying to figure out what this dream means, I typically figure it out because I've shared it with somebody. But for him to have the dream and interpretation is pretty cool. And that's like a big deal that the Lord. That's a big sign that the Lord is speaking to him. But if we were to pause on that perspective and to rewind a little bit yesterday we read the story of Dinah and her brothers saying again, it doesn't say which brothers or if it was in all all of them, like all ten of them, is what I'm thinking. If Benjamin was just born, so then that's eleven, if it may be eleven of them are coming to her defense. And so that they have all these men be circumcised of the men of Shekham be circumcised, and then they are slaughtered. So those same brothers that were like, we're going to do this for our sister are now we're going to kill our brother. Which is a very big swing on the scale. Anyways, that's the story that we read. And so we're reading about Joseph. This is a very well known story. So I don't want to break it down too much because I feel like we all know it, but really this story is this story of continued dysfunction, family dysfunction, deceit, jealousy, rivalry, manipulation and killing. These are the stories that we read about in the Bible. And gosh, I hope you cannot relate to something like this, but I think we to this extent, like, Joseph, he's sold into human trafficking, and that's really awful. And we're going to see how his story plays out. This is not the end for Joseph's life, and we're going to see what the Lord really does with his life and how Joseph stewards this. But could you imagine your family, like, your mom dies? And I'm sure they knew what was going on with Leah. We just don't have insight onto her. But then you kind of grew up knowing that your dad loved your one mom more than the other. I don't even know how they would aunt or second mom. How does that work? Or do they live in the same household? They probably are in the same little community, but same tents. I don't know. But to grow up in that atmosphere, I'm sure only broods, I don't think they just one day woke up and decided that they hated Joseph just because he had dreams. Maybe this was truly the seed that it just started growing. But I feel like if you're the head of the household and you have two wives and you clearly love one more than the other, and the other one is not well loved, but you have a ton of kids with her and they all grow up feeling that relationship, they feel that disconnection. You're a kid. How can you not pick up on that? Right? And so even things being probably, evidently known, if we have that much context to scripture, I'm sure their whole lives that's being reinstated. Wow. I bet, like, yeah. Rachel's kids, her sons are loved way more than we are. And there's so much more of us. But then another thing, Joseph, he has dreams and he is a dreamer and he has this coat that they don't have. They don't have this. It's another thing in their face of we are not loved more. Like there's clearly one who's loved more. And it's not us, it's not me. And so I'm not saying that I condone their behavior, but I can understand where they came from, if that makes sense. Again, I don't know what I'm trying to say. I think more so of like if the question is what happened to you as a child? We understand what happened to them as a child and that just cultivated throughout their whole life. Now, as an adult, I can understand why this happened. Do I agree with it? No. Do I think it was good? No, of course not. But this is what happens when you have a generational dysfunction. So anyways, maybe you've read this story before you know what's coming next, so maybe you haven't. And so we'll pause right there for today.

Prayer

But, Father, I thank you for your word. And God, I thank you that you are Lord. And I thank you that you have so many children. And God, I just believe that you don't have a favorite and that you don't love one more than the other. You may love us in different ways and in different capacities. You may show it differently, just as any parent would with their different kids. But God, I thank you that ultimately I believe that you don't have favorites. And so I thank you are the good and perfect father. And maybe those of us who are listening, there may be some that had a father who played favoritism, who maybe had a second family or walked out on them or made it very clear that they weren't the ones that were chosen, they weren't the ones that were loved. Or maybe you were the one that was chosen over somebody else, and you're trying to figure out how to navigate all that. And would I just pray that you would rewrite their story that you are father and that you are a safe god and that you are a safe man, you're a safe king, a safe father, a safe friend for them to lean into and really understand what it looks like to have a father. What it looks like to have someone that loves them unconditionally deeply and gently and kindly. And so Lord, I just thank you that you are healing, and I thank you that Joseph's story doesn't end here and ours don't end here or the place that we thought that they were going to end. Lord, I thank you that you are the author and the finisher. And so we trust you. And Lord, we just ask that you would step into that and that we would know you as lord, I think that you reveal yourself when we ask you. And Lord, I pray that we would be more aware and that we would silence all of our distractions and just have some time with you. And in your name, we pray amen.

Outro

If you have prayer requests, I know the past few days have had some pretty heavy readings, some things that may be coming up with you, just like family systems things. There's some family generation, and you're just like, oh, my goodness, I don't know what to do with this. For sure, ask for prayer. And I will say if you feel like you need someone to talk to about these things, I would encourage you to find someone who is qualified. Yes, it's really great to the process with a friend and to give prayer from other believers and saints. But if you feel like you need something more than that, I super encourage you to seek that out. There is nothing wrong with it. Doesn't mean you're super broken, doesn't mean you're super damaged. You don't have to be on the brink of losing it all or losing your mind or you don't have to let it get to that point. You can go for maintenance and for cultivation and just for healing. And so I don't know, I just feel like that's something that maybe you need the permission to do. I personally am in therapy, not because that I feel like I have great traumas that I'm trying to work through. I think there's just things that everybody can work through. I'm just saying if you feel like there's some things that are coming up and you are longing for someone who has dedicated their time and their efforts into studying how to help you with some things and how to maybe it's talk therapy, maybe it's something a little bit different. But I just encourage you, and I want you to feel released. And you can love Jesus and you can have a therapist, and it doesn't mean that you don't trust him. That's personally what I believe, but I'll stop there. But that is all for today. I'm China. I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Line

Good morning, everyone. This is Gina from California, god's new creation. I have been listening for about ten years now. I run a business in my town. We had a roommate who lived with us for five years that we just took in, just someone we met, barely had him pay rent, and that was it. He ended up working for me at my shop for rent the last two years. We had just found out because he confessed to a friend that when he was mad at us or angry, he would go online and post negative reviews attacking our shop. One of the reviews I remember when I read it, was a very personal attack, saying that I was unkind and mean and that this person would never come back to our shop. From that review, I had dyed my hair I rethought my life and I went into a deep depression for about six to seven months. Mind you, this was five months after my father in law died from lung cancer. So he devastated me and I had no idea that this roommate did this to me until he confessed to his friend. I am just in shock that anyone could pretend to be somebody else online to attack somebody. He has written poems about us and he has complained to other people about us, but this is such a painful thing. So there are reviews that aren't even real that he used to attack us personally in our business that he worked for, which makes no sense. But I love you guys and just pray that I find healing and that one day I can forgive him and pray that he will leave my family alone.

Hey, chronological family, this is Desperately Seeking Jesus out of Winston Salem, North Carolina. And I am calling today with a couple of prayer requests. I have a friend that I actually met through DABC in Raleigh whose mother is having surgery today to remove cancer. So I know you're going to be hearing this a couple of days late, but I asked for her continued healing and that she can rest easily when. She comes back from the hospital and to pray for strength and comfort for the family. Lord also comes to you today with a request for Tamika from Charlotte for. Her living donor kidney. Let's just go ahead and go to prayer to the Lord and pray with that to Heavenly Father. God, we just know that you're so awesome. We know that you line things up when we ask for them. And Lord were two or more gathered, so are you. So here at the Deliotto bottle, chronological there are two or more. And Lord, we know that you hear our prayers for we just ask that you be with her. We ask that you give her peace. God, we just love you and we're grateful to you and we just want to be able to see our sisters in Christ flourish.

Hello, DABC community. My name is Brandon from Pennsylvania and I am a first time caller. This is my first year with DAB and I just want you all to know that I am praying for each and one of you as you call in for prayer requests. God sees you, God hears you and God knows you by name. Sierra from Texas, I just wanted to wish you a happy belated birthday to you and I also want to thank you for sharing your testimony with us. As someone also in their 20s, it is so easy to fall into the worldly ideas and practices because for a lot of people it may seem normal and if I'm being completely honest, I also sometimes fall into that trap. But God always finds a way to pick me back up and I am constantly so thankful for the Lord. Your snippet of your testimony really spoke volume to me. And I am so happy that you chose God over this temporary world that we live in. It's a constant battle. And just know that you are not alone in this walk of faith. I am so proud of you. I love you all and have a great weekend.

Hey, my tremendously terrific DABC fam. This is Kingdom Seeker Daniel. Family, I just want to pray for a couple of DABCers. But before I do lady Jill, my goodness, woman of God, thank you. Thank you so much. You have been just laying it. I was just so moved by your thoughts around God's word at the appointed time. That was so good. And I couldn't help but think about the appointed time that God allowed my wife to return home. So I can't get into that, but I don't have time. I just want to thank you, Lady Jill, for how the Lord is using you to minister to our hearts. So Father, I come on behalf of under construction and her husband who has a pinched nerve and it's preventing him from working. God, would you touch his back, touch his body, touch his bones, his joints, his nervous system in every area that's being affected with this pinched nerve. God, would you allow the nerves to relax completely so that he would be able to get mobility and back to work and allow our sister to be able to prepare for her school in her semester of getting back to school. Lord, I thank you for our brother Renzo from Florida. God, I thank you for this powerful young man. God, would you use them in a bike? Anyway as you are stabilizing his thoughts to be pure and holy and upright. Before you strengthen this young man, surround him on every side and cause him to know that you've got him. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Reach back, Rizzo.

01/13/2020 DAB Transcript

Genesis 28:1-29:35, Matthew 9:18-38, Psalms 11:1-7, Proverbs 3:11-12

Today is the 13th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it's great to be here with you as we get ready and come in and out of the cold and the chaos that life can bring and just come around the Global Campfire where everyone has a seat and we just let this fire burn and warm us and it's this other place, this safe space we have, to allow God's Word to speak into our day and into our week and for that matter into our lives, transforming us from within. So, we’ll pick up where we left off yesterday which will take us back into the book of Genesis. And there's a bunch of drama going on in this third kinda generation. So, Abraham's grandchildren, Jacob and Esau, brothers, they’ve had…well…there’s been some deception, some significant deception on the part of Jacob and his mom, Rebekah. So, Jacob took the blessing and the birth right from his brother Esau. His brother Esau is not happy. In fact, so upset about it that he's willing to kill his brother Jacob. So, Jacobs got to go. And that's where we pick up the story. Genesis chapters 28 and 29 and we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week.

Commentary:

Okay. Oh…there's a lot for us to…to look at today. Let's go into the book of Genesis. There's just a lot of things that are happening right now and they're really important to the story that is unfolding. We can begin to read the Bible and read about different people's lives like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and know that they’re important figures in the Bible, but not necessarily know how they're all connected. And, yet, once we met Abram the story has been a cohesive story of Abram who became Abraham, his family, right? So, we are at the grandchildren level at this point, Jacob and Esau and we read the story of what happens. So, Jacob is on the run and he's going back to Abraham's family where he's been sent. This is the same way that Abraham's servant went and to the same people that Abraham's servant went to get a wife for Isaac, right, Rebekah. So, this is where Jacob's going and when he gets there, he meets Laban who is Rebekah’s brother. We already met him. He was much younger, when Abraham's servant came but he would have been roughly the same general age as his sister Rebekah. So, now he's grown up and in charge of things and Rebekah’s son Jacob comes to him and lives with him. But let’s not get ahead of the story. Jacob’s on the run and the sun sets so he finds place to sleep and it's in this city that was known as Luz that became known as Bethel, which is biblical Bethel, a place that we’ll see many times on our journey through the Old Testament. And he is a dream and God appears to him. So, the third generation. God appeared to Abraham with a promise. God appeared to Isaac in Beersheba with a promise. And now He is communicating with Isaacs's son and Abraham's grandson, Jacob, reaffirming the promise. So, Esau gets up and says, surely God is here, and I was just unaware of it. Can I just tell you that that phrase out of the book of Genesis, that phrase right there much describes our whole lives? So often we live our lives as if we need to go through a certain set of rituals, kind of get ourselves into a certain state of organization or whatever within or without in order to approach God who is separate and apart from and distant and separated from us and then we can come into His presence and then…and then commune with Him and ask for the things that we need and offer our worship. When the truth is, as we are going to find out explicitly in the Bible that God is within us and never absent. We aren't separated from Him. We have just become unaware of His presence. And, so, when we do become aware of His presence, which we can do at any point in time, we too, Like Jacob would say, “surely the Lord is here, and I was just unaware of it.” So, fold that up, put that in your purse or in your wallet and carry it around with you for the rest of this year. It can be a rescue when things get pretty crazy. And this place that Jacob spent the night, he's got another night to spend in that place, but that is a story for another day. So, Jacob wakes up, you know, he's realizing the presence of the Lord. And then he does something interesting and it's something that we've already mentioned. So, he…he gets this rock and he…he stands it up and…and then he pours oil on top of it and he sets that stone as a standing stone. It's…it’s a marker the Bible says. And he does this, and we see this tradition throughout the Scriptures, he does this so that what happened there will not be forgotten. And one of the ways that we’ve brought that specific tradition into our rhythm of life in the Daily Audio Bible community is to encourage journaling. Write down the things that the Lord reveals to you in your heart as you move your way through His word. You don't want to forget that. You want to be able to go back to that place and remember what happened there. So, then Jacob eventually does get to Laban as we mentioned a few minutes ago and he does become a part of Laban's household and he begins to work as a shepherd because he's fallen in love with Laban's daughter Rachel. So, he does his work. He asks for his wife. He gets married. He has a wedding night he wakes up and finds out his bride is not the one he loves. It's her sister. And, so, now he's married to Leah but in love with Rachel. And a week goes by and then he marries Rachel. So, now he is the husband of two sisters and that, you just can't imagine that’s gonna be a harmonious home, but I want to point out something here. Jacob had been a bit of a deceitful person all along. And in a very real way, the trickery that he used to deal with his father and his brother is the same kind of trickery that's being used on him. And, so, we could say Jacob is one of the patriarchs, he is, you know, one of the pillars of the story that were telling and God used him, but the Bible goes to great lengths to show us the way that Jacob was a conniver. And we’ll see that it…it doesn't ever really smooth out for Jacob until he learns that lesson and ceases that activity. And we will see that his…his trickery and deception, and his, you know, kind of trying to play the game, these things haunt him well into his adulthood, well into the establishment of his own household. So, we end our reading today with Jacob having married the two sisters and the sister that Jacob loves, Rachel, she’s not able to have children and meanwhile, the sister that Jacob doesn't love, Leah, she has already given birth to four sons. Her firstborn was Ruben and then came Simeon and then Levi and then Judah. And those names, depending on how much you've ever been around the Bible, those names may sound familiar, and they should. These little children who are babies at the moment in our reading will one day grow up to have households of their own and we’ve met four of them, but there are more that we will meet. And these people will one day grow up and become tribes, 12 tribes making up one whole people called Israel. That’s the story we’re telling, the origin story of the Hebrew people who, for the most part populate the rest of the Bible

And then we get into the book of Matthew and we’re very, very quickly seeing the ministry of Jesus and the stories in the gospel of Jesus are just fantastic to read, but if we actually want to get to know Jesus and not just know the stories about Him then we need to look under the surface of these stories because we find such interesting things there, things that challenge…challenge what we think we know. So, we begin our reading today and one of the leaders of the village that Jesus was in, he comes and he’s like my…my daughter just died. So, you can only imagine that, He didn’t just come up to Jesus and wait his turn and kind of, you know, “my daughter just died but come and lay your hand on her and she will live.” Like, nobody does that if their daughter just died. So, you can imagine the situation but it's an urgent situation. So, Jesus and the disciples they get up and they follow this guy and on their way…so Jesus is on His way to this urgent situation when He gets interrupted because there’s this woman who’s been kind of following Him around and she's…she's been bleeding for 12 years, right? So…so…the thing is, as we will learn when we go through the Mosaic law, we will understand that this woman who is a Hebrew woman, she is ritually impure, okay, because of the bleeding for 12…so that means for 12 years she's been ritually impure and kept outside of God's presence. She thinks to herself, “if I can just get to Him. If I can just touch…touch his robe, I’ll be healed.” And, so, we know this super famous story and that happens, but what we…what we usually walk away from is that we look at this story as Jesus, the miracle worker, the proof we’re looking for to believe upon him. Ironically, it doesn't appear that Jesus ever was angling to be perceived of as a miracle worker. Obviously, if miracles are being performed in your presence word is going to spread so He couldn't keep a lid on that but that does not seem to be in any way what he was after. And if you don't believe me, then just keep watching Jesus as we go through the Gospels over the next several months and watch what He does when the stuff happens. Let's just take the story that we’re telling right now. This woman, she has touched Jesus and Jesus realized He was touched, and according to Matthew, Jesus turned and saw her and I'm quoting Jesus, “have courage daughter, your faith has saved you” and the woman was made well from that moment. So, unless Jesus has been misquoted here and that's not what He meant to say at all then we would have to deduce from what He said that this woman's healing was not simply something that happened to her, but rather something that she also collaborated in. “Have courage daughter, your faith has saved you.” And the woman was made well from that moment. That's what the Bible says. Okay. So, then that scene gets over and Jesus does finally make it to this leader’s house whose daughter has just died, and there are a bunch of people there because he was a leader, and this was the common practice of the timHe ge. When there's a loss of life then, you know, mourner’s friends and people…people will come to mourn. A lot of times outside, even…even they would be hired at times to come and professionally mourn just to let everyone know around that there's been this loss. So, Jesus comes into that kind of situation where there's a lot of crying and weeping and noise. And He says, “leave.” Like, that’s what the Bible says. Verse 24 “leave”, He said. Okay. Because the girl isn't dead but she's asleep. And all of a sudden, their mourning turned into laughing, which is something that is a rich metaphor in the Scriptures, but this is not the kind of joy that we’re talking about, they start laughing at Him sarcastically. They are unaware of the situation. They have accepted the reality, this person, this girl is dead. And, so, now they begin all of the rituals of death when a completely different reality is available, and Jesus gets everybody out and after they’re out he goes and gets the girl and she wakes up. So, in this scene we see Jesus describing, depicting, engaging with a reality or the opportunity of a reality that everybody else can't see and has dismissed. And when they’re presented with this reality, the idea that the girl isn't dead, they dismiss that. Like, hope doesn't rise. They laugh at Him instead. Okay friends. We’re looking at ourselves here in the Scriptures because this is what's intended to happen, that we look into these stories we feel all of the different elements of these stories and we find our heart in these stories. We locate where we are, and we find our orientation and the reality is that all too often the presence of Jesus is with us, just like Jacob, completely unaware of it and then we do become aware of it, but the situation seems impossible. We can't wrap our minds around any other kind of reality besides what we seem to be crushed by and instead of reaching out, right, for the hem of His garment, instead of just reaching out we hear him say it doesn't have to be this way son, it doesn't have to be this way daughter and we laugh at him. And do you see the parallels here? So, you remember the story of the promise in the beginning with Abraham and Sarah, she laughed too. And we begin to realize, this is a pattern, this is a theme, these things keep happening over and over. They keep happening over and over in the Bible because they keep happening over and over in my life and they keep happening over and over in my life because they're happening everywhere in the world. And then we become aware of the fact that maybe we are living blinded to the fact that there's another way, that there's a way to be in this world, continually in the presence of God because His presence is never taken from us. We are simply unaware of it. And we are watching a person when we watch Jesus. We are watching a person totally dialed in. Jesus is modeling for us who we are and how we’re supposed to be. So, this girl is raised up. Everyone obviously doesn't laugh anymore. The news spreads all over the place and the next scene we see is two blind men asking for mercy. And Jesus gets them aside and he simply asks them a question…like He doesn't heal them, He asks them a question, “do you believe that I can do this?” And they say, “yes. I do believe.” And then...and then…here's…and I'm quoting Jesus again, “let it be done for you according to your faith.” And their eyes were opened. Right? You see, again, this isn't something that Jesus did to them, it's something that was collaborative. Faith arose within them. Their awareness of the presence of God rose up and they experienced God. And then…and then the miracle worker, Jesus has some words. I'm quoting Jesus here, “be sure that no one finds out.” That’s what Jesus said after He opened the eyes of the blind. But according the Scriptures they didn’t listen to Jesus, they went and spread the news about Him everywhere. And then we are taken immediately to a scene in which Jesus is dealing with a person possessed by a demon and was mute because of it. And Jesus throws the demon out, the man begins to speak, the crowds are amazed. Alright. So, now we are about to encounter the two different reactions that happen and swirl around just about everything Jesus does. So, this person who couldn't speak is now speaking and the crowds are amazed and they say, according to the Bible, “nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” So, they are effectively saying, “we are seeing a new thing.” God is doing a new thing and they believe that it's God doing this thing because the Scriptures tell us that they are in awe and worshiping God about it. Jesus is definitely gaining momentum. But the Pharisees, right? So, the religious leaders, the people who are charged with guarding the souls of God's people, their response isn't, “nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.” Their response is, “He drives out demons by the ruler of the demons.” Those are two very different reactions to the presence of God in these stories and they reveal the different ways that we respond when we find ourselves encountering God. On the one hand, we could say, “I don't know how to explain this. I do not know how to put this into language or words, but something has shifted, an awareness in me has changed. Something…something that wasn't here is now here”, right? Like, maybe “my anxiety has fled, and I feel a presence of comfort with in me.” I mean…if we just begin to describe examples, we could go all day, but we realize that as much as we try to articulate this doesn’t need to be articulated, it's something deep, it's something true, it's something that has shifted in us, and no one can take it away from us because it has been real to us, right? So, then we could say, “nothing like this has ever happened before.” Or we can have the same kind of experience and then immediately lose our body and soul and just go into our mind trying to figure out what the theology of our experience might have been, go deeply into our religion and go like, “do the rules say that this can happen?” And then we can easily find ourselves in the seat of the Pharisees. “This is an of God, this is of the devil.” Stuff happens all the time and we need to know what we’re seeing in the New Testament when it comes to Jesus. It's religion and the keepers of God's rules that are attempting to diminish and denigrate God and eventually to kill Him. Yikes! Like, that’s scary stuff and disruptive stuff and, like I’ve said, we need to get used to disruption because the Bible’s gonna shake us. So, after this encounter with the Pharisees where they’re like, “He drives out demons by the ruler of demons” Jesus continues to just move on doing what He…He does. Quoting from Matthew, “Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness”, right? That’s what we would expect to find Jesus doing and that's what we actually continue to pray that Jesus will do in this world. But what's interesting is that Jesus comments on it. When He saw the crowds, He felt compassion for them because they were distressed and dejected. They were like sheep without a shepherd.” So, He felt…He felt bad about that. In another words He sees the plight of humans trying to navigate life, and yet Jesus is operating and navigating in and among these people and awakening something in them. He’s telling them about a kingdom that is within them. They are awakening to this and He sees…He sees this happening, but he realizes it's not gonna happen with just one person with just Him alone. So, He said to His disciples, “the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” So, Jesus was seeing a human harvest, and He was in the harvest reaping the harvest. And we can look at Jesus as a wisdom teacher and miracle worker and prophet, and yes, divine son of the living most-high God, who was operating as a human being in some sort of special other nonhuman way, when Jesus continually is just operating as a human should be operating. And when we get to the writings of the apostle Paul this will become explicit. And in our reading today Jesus is saying, “I need…I…pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest…I need help. So, brothers and sisters. The harvest is still ripe. It…it will never not be. Humanity is asleep. We are still living backward, and help is still needed and that's you and we’re gonna find what we usually lack is awareness. And that's what we see in the Old and New Testaments today, and that's what we need to begin to live into.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit because on our own we are blind, and we can't see and we are like sheep without a shepherd, and we are floundering in life. We know that. We've experienced that. It's…it’s not a theory, we’ve lived it. And, so we come to You, You've rescued us, You’ve changed everything but so often we fall back into the patterns that we know and we look at the world in the way that it seems like everybody else is looking at the world and so we find ourselves at times even at odds with You because we’ll consult all the rules and all the regulations and all the things we think that we know and we miss when You do something new. And yet the Scriptures tell us it is the same Spirit that raised You from the dead, the same Spirit that You were operating in on this planet, the same, not a similar, the same one that lives within us. And, so, this idea of being Christ like isn't a metaphor. This idea of being one body, the hands and feet, the physical representation of Christ on earth inside of us, this isn’t a metaphor. This is something we’re supposed to collaborate in. And, so, as we continue this journey that has just begun this year, we invite Your Holy Spirit to fully transform us from within, day by day, step-by-step so that the person that we see in the mirror at the end of this voyage is a different person, so that we are awake and aware in our lives. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, its the website, its where you find out what's going on around here. I have highlighted some different resources that are in the Daily Audio Bible shop because they are…well…they….they’ve been created for the journey that we’re on. And one…one resource that I haven't mentioned yet this year, but this is a good day to mention it, is…is a DVD…double DVD and digital download series called “Promise Land.” And we spent, I think six seasons in Israel filming so many of the biblical archaeological locations in all their beauty in an attempt to bring the biblical places closer to home. So, like we we're talking about Luz today, Bethel, right, Bethel and this place where…where Jacob spent the night and a place where he's going to come back to. So, we’ve…we’ve filmed that. So, like to get an idea of what he saw, what that looks like, you can see this. And so many of the different places around Jesus ministry, these villages and these places we’re Jesus ministered, they’re all filmed. And, so, it makes a fantastic resource to just be able to look in and actually see. And before I ever went Israel I never even wanted to go. It was like not the thing I thought it would be. I just kinda…I don’t know what I thought. I thought it would maybe ruin the Bible for me but it didn't, it actually made it a real, like these things happened in real places. And I realized while all I've been looking at is, you know, pictures like static photographs on the Internet of these places, what it would it be like to try to provide a 360° view, like a real honest look at a place from the air and we using drones and from the ground and all of this. So, that's Promise Land and it will serve as a fantastic resource throughout the year to refer to. It’s like, there’s over 70 different locations that we’ve filmed and are just, they’re short, like only 2 to 3 minutes in a place. So, real easy to access. Like, “okay. We were reading about Bethel today. Let me see that.” And in just a couple minutes you can see it and find out the significance biblically of what happened there. So, that is a resource that is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Check that out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is 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 hit the Hotline button in the app, the little red button at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.

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

Community Prayer and Praise:

Good morning family this is Bee from Ireland, three years listener, a couple of times caller, I’m not that regular but today this call is specifically for Valerie who called to ask for prayer for her mom Shirley and her brother Anthony who got into an altercation and Anthony I think jumped on the car and they got into an accident. And she prayed, she asked for us to pray for compassion because she really is finding it hard to feel any compassion for her brother who’s an addict and also an alcoholic and also to pray for her mom. So, today I played according to Colossians 3:113 that the compassion that you need will come into your heart, that the Lord will flood your heart with love, that the love of God will be __ your hearts today and that you begin to love your brother anew. I pray for your mom. I pray that she has healing in her heart, that she forgives herself. If there’s anything she thinks she did wrong that she does not take on the guilt and condemnation which comes from the enemy but instead she embraces the love and the peace of God. I pray lastly for your brother Anthony. I pray in the name of Jesus just like the prodigal son he will come back to his senses, he will come back to his right mind, supernatural healing will come upon him, that the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and gives us resurrection power will be upon him in the name of Jesus. That he will be resurrected not just in his body but in his mind as well in the mighty name of Jesus. That this incident that the enemy thought would be for evil will turn around for his own good. As the Bible says, all things work together for those that love…that love God and are called according to his purpose. I pray that as he gets healing from this brain situation that has put him in the ICU he will be resurrected back to his…himself the way God intended in Jesus’ name. Amen.

First, I just want to say that I am so thankful for the Daily Audio Bible app. I just discovered it yesterday. My pastor shared it with us and I’m just like, “why have I not known about this before?” But I am super excited. So, I started at day one even though today is day six. I’m gonna catch up. But I just wanted to submit a prayer request, just for my heart, for my health as I am…have been going through some health issues. I’m just asking for continued prayer as I really just rebuild or discover and hold onto the foundation of the Lord has already laid before me and just rebuild a new mindset, new mentalities, new focuses in my health. And just literally I feel like I’m entering in a new decade and completely re-creating my life. And, so, I’m just asking for a partner in prayer and faith and support in that. And also, just pray for my marriage and my daughter and our home as we start these…these new things together that are going to shape the rest of our lives. And, so, I could just appreciate and really use the prayer and agreeing and standing with me and our family as we start this…this new season, this new lifelong season together. Thank you.

Hi Audio Daily Bible this is Keisha I wanted to…I’m calling asking for prayer for my children. I owe these two children. I believe my son is doing something illegal. I don’t know. I’m so scared for him. I’m so scared for him. And he doesn’t talk to me like that. We talk but they won’t talk to me. And I came from that lifestyle and I just don’t want him to go down that road. Please pray for my child. Please. And my daughter, my daughter, she wound up not completing college and I believe she’s in a state of depression and I just need your help. I just need your prayers. I am so at my wits end right now. They’re grown but there’s still my babies. So, please pray for me. Thank you. Bye.

This is Candace from Oregon please join me in this prayer. Our Father who is in heaven holy is Your name. May Your Kingdom come, and Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give each of us on this day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us and lead us away from temptation, deliver us from evil for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Thanks for praying with me. May the Lord bless you and keep you today. May He make his face to shine upon you and give you peace.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Dawn from California and I’m excited to start my 14th year with this great family. And today’s prayer requests really just touched my heart to call in to cover the two wives, the one that is possibly getting a divorce after 40 years and the other one who is dealing with a possible infidelity of her husband. I lift you both up to the hand of the Lord and I know that He as you so in His heart and He will protect you both, I promise you that. I promise you His love is faithful. I lift up our sister who also called in about the suicide of her sister. Oh baby, our hearts are with you. We love you. We ask God to strengthen you and comfort you. And then to all of our new family members to this DAB family, we thank God for you joining this journey. This process is yours. Remember make your time with the Daily Audio Bible a set and sacred and protected time and listen to the word, almost see it as a movie. Visualize what you hear Brian reading in your heart so that your mind doesn’t stray, and you don’t get distracted. Be sure to enjoy the five minutes or so of teaching that he has on most days to explain the word in a deeper depth and way. And by listening to the prayer requests at the end it will connect you to this great community and allow you to feel a Campfire that we all enjoy. We love you. We thank God for starting this year with you and continue to call in with your prayer requests. This shows your connection to the family. We love you DAB. Have a great year.

Hello Daily Audio Bible this is Duane from Wisconsin all praise and glory to our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ. I’m calling in today for Anonymous who called in and unfortunately had to give us the bad news that her sister took her own life and that their father is struggling with this because of the words he might have said to his daughter. Just to let you know that I know what that’s like. My son’s, I haven’t seen in a few years. One spent some time in jail twice. But I know what that’s like. We feel as a father that when they go astray that it is something that we have said and done. So, I definitely lift up your father and we pray that the Lord’s comfort and peace will come into him and give him understanding and direction in this time of struggle that the Lord will be with you as well and He will lay a hand of peace upon you and give you understanding in this time of struggle. There was also a lady who called in and said that her husband, I believe it was a fair number of years in marriage, that she has caught him kissing another lady and that he is lying to her with bullying. I want you to know that we are lifting you up. We pray for the Lord’s hedge of protection around you. We pray that your husband will realize what he is doing, will repent and come to you for forgiveness. We want to live this all up to our wonderful Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Brian and Jill and all those who behind the scenes, we want to give you praise and glory for this great podcast…

Hey family this is Malisa from Albertville Alabama. I wanted to welcome all the new listeners. I’ve been listening for nine years now and you will never be the same. You’ll love it. It’s…it has helped me so much. And one of the new listeners called in…I got a little bit behind…but he sang, and I think his name was Kingdom. I couldn’t write it down because I was at work. Brother, you can sing. I thoroughly enjoyed that. And I also want to welcome my church family, Compassion City Church of Albertville Alabama. My Pastor, Pastor John Henderson said last night that he listens to the DAB and I was so excited because I didn’t know. So, I want to welcome my church family, Compassion City Church of Albertville Alabama. I love you Brian, I love you Jill, I love you family. We’ll talk to you all later. Bye-bye.

1/21/2020 DAB Chronological Transcription

Genesis 27 - 29

Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible Chronological. I'm China. Today is the 21st day of January, welcome. It is so great to be here with you guys today. As we continue on through our week. We continue on in the book of Genesis. We are in chapters 27 - 29, and we are going to be in the English Standard Version for this week. Commentary

The story is so crazy. It's so crazy. We read about Jacob and Esau and Jacob deceiving his father Isaac into giving him the blessing. And being the first born, having that blessing was a big deal. We saw just the words that were spoken over Jacob and from that, the father's blessing and really just speaking, it's so much more than just like identity, but it's literally speaking blessing over them. And so there's so much power in that. And Jacob steals that. And so not only does he have his brother's birthright because he took that from him, he deceived him into giving it to him. Now he's also taken his blessing. And so Jacob is, he's, he's freaked out. He's like, okay, I got to leave because I'm not trying to get killed. And so he flees. And he comes across this, this man who's basically, I mean, he is family and I believe it's his, his uncle. And so he's like married to his cousins, which is so different. It's different times, but, uh, it's reading those details. Those are what stick out to me. Um, yeah. And so something very interesting happens and Jacob is like, okay, cool, I'll work for you seven years. They're gonna feel like days because I'm so in love with Rachel. And the Bible talks about Leah being, she having like a weak eyes. And that's like a kind way of saying that she was not attractive. She was not pleasant to look at. And Rachel was. And so every time I read this story, I'm like, "homie, how did you, like you're in love with someone. How do you not know like your, like sleeping with someone else that like, and you can't tell their voice or whatever". Um, but thinking about, it's like, okay, it's dark, there's no lights, there's no way for him to really know. Again, weird details that my brain thinks of. And so he's, he's completely deceived. So like they're, they're married, they've slept together, they are asleep, they wake up, the sun is up, he sees her face. It's not Rachel, it's Leah. And he goes to the Laban and he's like, "Hey, like wrong daughter. Did you like mean to do that or do you just hate me or what's going on"? And Laban, the truth comes out and he's like, look, "if I didn't give Leah to you, Leah probably would've never been married". And also it's like not custom for the oldest daughter to not be married, but the youngest daughter to be married. So they kind of have them go like in birth order. And it's just very, very interesting how much birth order matters in this time. And yeah, and so we have the story where he served another seven years. Just crazy. I'm like a year is forever, but seven heck like you better really be in love dude. And so he waits 14 years to be with Rachel, in love with her for 14 years. So they finally are married, which is the weirdest story ever. He has two sisters for wives and, and so we, we see that Leah is, is able to conceive, she's having sons and Rachel is not. And so after all of that summary, remember yesterday when I was talking about, um, pay attention to some of the things that we see, uh, that are repetitive. And just something that we've seen today is Jacob had things like, he was deceptive, he was manipulative and he stole things that weren't his, that were not rightfully his. And so now the narrative is being flipped where he was deceived, he was manipulated. And unfortunately, it doesn't just stop in this family line that like, he doesn't just say like, okay, wow. I'm like, this is all catching up with me. Lord, I repent. Um, how do I stop this going any further? Uh, none of that. And so we just kind of see this trickling downfall of manipulation, the seat and taking things into our own hands and really just so interesting to me, but also seeing the Lord being so sovereign in the fact of, okay, a blessing is a blessing. And yes, Jacob, you did steal it and it wasn't yours, but I will continue to bless you because that's who I am. And I love that about the Lord where he looks at our heart and he looks at also his promises in his word. And I don't think it's in the way of where he's like, "Oh, I like, that wasn't in the plans, like I still have to do that". I think that it was the Lord's grace that he continued out this plan with Jacob. Do I think that it was maybe supposed to be Esau this whole time? I have no idea. I'll ask when I get to heaven and let you know. But um like, it's those types of things that spark a lot of questions for me. And understanding the Lord's love in a deeper capacity of how could you have loved him this well, even though he did some really terrible things and hurt his family and then abandoned them all, wasn't even there for a conversation with his brother after he just stole his entire life. But just seeing who the Lord is in his goodness and how he forgives and how he loves and how he continues on his plan with his people. Prayer

And so Jesus, we love you. We thank you for your word. God, I just, um, I thank you for all of the stories that we read today. And if there are any of us who are like, wow, that's my family line or that feels familiar or this just kind of brings up some things that have yet to finish the healing works. Um, God, I thank you that ultimately this isn't our story. You are rewriting our stories and today is a great day to change heart to change course. If you're calling us back home to you, if you were calling us back into your arms, uh, which we we believe that you are. And so Jesus, if we resonate with the story of Jacob where we have caused havoc and mayhem and we have left the scene and abandoned our family or anything in that situation, God, I just pray that our hearts would be softened and that we would just feel your presence in this moment. Um, and then if we resonate with the Esau, God I just pray that we would really just begin to pray for those people that have caused us that pain, and that we would be able to love them in the way that you do and see them in the way that you do, and uh, have grace and understanding and peace that surpasses anything. And yeah, Lord, we just thank you for the continuation of healing in our families. And I thank you that we have stories like this that remind us to be mindful of our family and to continue to pray for our family line or what is to come and for what has uh, has been. And so Jesus, we just love you. We praise you. It's in your son's name we pray, amen. Announcements

Dailyaudiobible.com is our website. That is our home base and place of connection, so be sure to check that out. We are more than halfway, we are like definitely more than halfway into our fast, but if you don't know, we are doing a 21 day fast. And uh, it ends, we have four more days left. And so, um, so, so crazy, so exciting. But um, it's been so good. I've, I've noticed a difference in, uh, like for me, so like kind of just a refresh of what I've been fasting is, um, specific foods that have been very disruptive and very inflaming to my body. And, um, really just like drawing a line in the sand and saying like, I'm not eating those foods because I'm actually gonna press in when I like want them or when it feels like, what am I going to make tonight for dinner? Or what's like, how do I grocery shop or what do I eat or what do I do when I'm traveling? It really just pressing in and asking the Lord just to be in all of that. Cause that's never something that I invited him into, which is like a weird thing to think about. But um, that has been really beneficial for me and for my health and have definitely felt so much better. Um, and then also just like time before bed and being intentional to, um, take that time to pray over my family, over, um, people in just in my circle of life, uh, anything that I really just like, I've actually been really experiencing, a lot of fear, uh, lately and didn't even realize it until during this fast that that was exposed. And I have like, literally for like the past two weeks have woken up in the middle of the night, like three or four times, like, have not slept well and like, I don't know what it was that clicked in my brain, but, um, just thinking like, wow, what if the Lord's actually speaking to me in the middle of the night. And like, I've missed it just because I've thought it was either my dog or my husband snoring and I was just irritated. And so it's little things like that that I've really been able to be more sensitive and attuned to the Holy spirit where I normally wouldn't have been. I would've just been like, Oh, I'm, I'm hungry and, uh, this is the closest thing in my way. And so I'm just gonna eat this, but I'm not gonna feel good later. Or just be really easier to like, watch Netflix or just to be on my phone before bed so that I can get tired or anythings of that. And so swapping out those habits and just pursuing the Lord, has been so fruitful and definitely nourished my soul. Um, and so yeah, I'm really excited to hear what you guys, uh, think and are saying after this, fast. Like we can come back together on Sunday, um, and just really decompress, all that these 21 days have been and uh, yeah. And then we'll do a harvest fast in the fall, but yeah, continue to call in with this updates and how you're feeling and what you're fasting and all of the things, uh, through our prayer request line or through the app. That is all for today. I'm China, I love you. And I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow. Community Prayer Line

Hello DABC family. This is Terry B, from Delaware. I am in my 13th year as a part of the Daily Audio Bible community. Shout out to my More sisters, hello. I am calling to say that I am doing the 21 day fast. I honestly didn't think I was going to do a fast at all, but China, when you came up with the idea, I thought, what should I do? And I thought, ah, perfect time do the Virgin, the JJ Virgin fast. So, um, got past the first week, uh, with a lot of sensations, but I'm working through it, uh, doing good so far. So asking for your prayers for the rest of the way and hoping to find out what I am, uh, having issues with. I've definitely been having some issues, uh, with my food allergies and so this should help me to finish figuring out what that is. I am praying for all of you who are doing the fast and look forward to hearing your story. Love y'all. Bye. Bye. Hi, this is Rachel from Pennsylvania and I just wanted to call in to Chronological and, um, let you guys know that I am looking forward to the phrase or word for this year. Um, the year of promise. When I first heard it, I was thinking, um, man, I'm just so happy and content right now. I feel like God has done everything I asked in 2019, so I don't have any more promises that I'm waiting on him for. But actually, um, then it just struck me like, hello, I am, I'm waiting for my husband to come to know the Lord. Um, and to be a believer and have a personal relationship. So I'm really excited about the year of promise because I'm, I'm looking forward to having my husband join me in my walk and, um, I'm looking forward to being able to talk with him about the, you know, the readings and, um, you know, all of the things that God is doing right now I feel like I scare him away if I tell them all the things I think God is moving and doing and it's so exciting for me. So I am really excited about the year of promise and I'm really excited that I believe God is going to do that for me and my husband this year. Um, I always say God works in his own time. Um, but really there isn't anything else, um, that God has promised me, um, personally. So I think that must mean that this is the year. Um, so I'm really looking forward to it. Um, thanks China for sharing that. Um, phrase with us, bye. Hello DABC family. It's EZ in Georgia. First of all China, I have to say thank you. Thank you, thank you for not playing a bunch of prayer requests in one sitting because I am the poster child as we all discovered this year when I tried to be a Double Dabber for four days for a short attention span, not about everything, about some things and I would like to fix it, but I can't. So I am calling to request prayer for my family. My father has had a very interesting history in my life. He was one of the most loved people in the community that I grew up in and I'm still a part of. Then he became a massive alcoholic and was for most of my life, we didn't have a relationship at all, to speak of. Um, came back into my life in about 2007 straightened his life out completely and things are wonderful, but now he is a chronic, severe diabetic and refuses to do anything to take care of himself. He has the most amazing genetics in the world. That's probably why he was a great athlete. So he lives with diabetes, blood sugar numbers that would probably kill most people and he just continues to function. I mean three, 400 it's ridiculous. And it's almost all in and out of the hospital all the time and just refuses to change anything, he's violent and aggressive. My mom is also very ill, she has rheumatoid arthritis and is incredibly sick and can't exactly do everything for him and he can do it for himself. If he would change his lifestyle, he would be fine. And I'm very resentful, I can't lie, he's in the hospital right this moment is why I'm even bringing this up. So I asked for prayer that I will love him again, that I will care. Because it's really easy for me not to because he was out of my life for so long. And that he will finally understand somehow by some miracle 'cause that's what it'll take, that he's got to do differently in his life or he is going to die. Doctors have told him, we have told him he doesn't listen, he doesn't care and that he will treat all of us better cause we all live in one house and it's kind of Bedlam and awful the way that it goes. So it's, it's, it's terrible. It really is, and it'll take a miracle, but I believe, thank you guys for the prayers.

01/14/2019 DAB Transcript

Genesis 30:1-31:16, Matthew 10:1–23, Psalms 12:1-8, Proverbs 3:13-15

Today is the 14th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I'm Brian. It is a pleasure to be here with you today as we move into this workweek and, you know, continue to move into this new year although I imagine we’re starting to find the rhythm of things. This week we’re reading from the New Living Translation and will take the next step forward, which will take us back into the book of Genesis. Today chapter 30 verse 1 through 31 verse 16 and we’re learning the story of Jacob who has found himself married to two sisters, which has caused considerable amount of family conflict, but we should watch this story very, very closely because we’re still following the story of Abraham and his descendants. And Jacob's descendants couldn't possibly have a more profound effect on the Bible. And, So, with that we’ll read from Genesis chapter 30.

Commentary:

Okay. So, as we are following the story of Jacob in the Old Testament. And just by way of reminder, Jacob is the grandson of Abraham and we talked about the significance of Abraham and we’ll be talking about the significance of Abraham pretty much the rest of the way through the Bible because he’ll come up, but he had a son of promise named Isaac who had a couple of sons and one of those sons is named Jacob and then Jacob had to flee from his brother Esau, right, back up into the north country to find his family and this is how he came to marry the two sisters, Rachel and Leah. Now, we kind of...we saw a battle of who could have the most kids in our reading today, but each of those sons that were born had names at each of those names should kind of seem at least a little familiar. And if that we understand we are tracking a family and its growth as we move through the book of Genesis we’ll understand that a larger story is being told instead of like discombobulated genealogies of people that we may or may not have ever heard of and can't really figure out exactly where this is all going. We’re following the story of a family and this family affects the world until today and through this family line comes Jesus who we are spending some time with as we spend our time in the New Testament. So, the Bible often offers us some pretty penetrating things to think about in terms of adjustments to our own lives and the way that we are living in this world, but the Bible is also telling us a story of a family of promise, a family that we as believers have been grafted into or adopted into. So, we’re kind of getting close to half way through the first month of the year. Now that we’re establishing a rhythm we should begin to understand that we’re reading the story of how we got here and who we are. And, so, as deeply penetrating as the Bible can be it is also deeply compelling. This is how we got here.

And speaking of Jesus, in the book of Matthew Jesus sent his disciples out among the Jewish people and He give them interesting instructions and those instructions basically look like it like instructions to not prepare. Like, I mean He told them, like, not to take an extra change of clothes, not take any money, like just go and that gives us a pretty compelling picture towards our own lives because, here we are kind of at the beginning of the new year, we’ve got some New Year's resolutions we’re trying to live up to, we’re far enough into the year to understand now that the idea of the resolution was a lot more fun than actually the work of the resolution, right? So, if it's 20 pounds you’re trying to dump, yeah, I mean, there’s a bunch of discipline involved in kind of changing the way you do things, but it could be anything, it could be any health-related goal, you know, a spiritual related goal, a vocational related goal. Whatever it is were going for, when we think about the goal it's a lot more fun to prepare then to do the work. And, so, when we think about our spirituality we’re like, okay, I’m just gonna get myself strong, you know, I’m gonna get my vocabulary right, I’m gonna know what it is I believe, I’m gonna get my theology right and then I can share that with the world when I'm all nice and ready and knowledgeable to do it. In the example Jesus gave to his disciples, it wasn't like a big theology lesson or like, make sure you’ve got this all right. He essentially told him to go, like, go now, go with whatever you have, go and don't be surprised that its disruptive when you do. So, interestingly enough, Jesus is saying, like if you're going to go on some sort of mission or become some sort of missionary however it is wherever you're going that you shouldn’t be completely unprepared and just kind of figure it out as you go. What Jesus is telling us is you’re already in the process of going no matter what you are doing so, be where you are and live on mission as it comes to you. And yeah, if you're planning something more extravagant, you’re being called to do something that's in another country or, you know, that requires a lot of planning and preparation then, yeah, do that but remember, while you're doing that not everything else stops. Wherever you are and whatever you have and however it is that you can offer it, you are offering the good news of the kingdom, right? So, you don’t have to spend your whole life preparing so that you can offer the good news of the kingdom, just do it. And friends, that can be as simple as a smile at a stranger today, right? That changes everything. When that person who you have no idea what their story is or what they're going through, when their eyes lock to your eyes for some random reason and you offer back kindness, that not only changes their day, that changes your day, that changes your posture of heart. If we’re walking with God we have these kind of touch point opportunities constantly. And when we get into the habit of them then we find that what we’re doing, when we’re simply kind that we’re bringing light into darkness and it’s changing the atmosphere. But if we will intentionally change the atmosphere everywhere we go then we’re going to live in a different atmosphere, one of peace and hope and joy and kindness and wisdom.

And, you know, we have lots of pursuits that we’re going to go after this year, but speaking of wisdom the book of Proverbs offers us the opportunity to consider what is most important in our achievements this year. “Wisdom”, we’re told, “is more profitable than silver and her wages are better than gold.” In other words, having wisdom is more important and more profitable than having money. “Wisdom is more precious than rubies. Nothing you desire can compare with her.” So, that gives us the opportunity to consider whether or not that's true. Is wisdom the thing that we value more than anything else? Are we understanding the truth that whatever we may desire nothing can compare with wisdom. Some good food for thought today because if we’re gonna live into what the Bible is telling us this year then some of these really important things at the beginning of the year are monumental. And wisdom and acquiring wisdom and being in a relationship with wisdom and being intertwined with wisdom and walking through this world using wisdom is one of them.

Prayer:

Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to help us know how to open ourselves fully to the voice of wisdom in our lives. We’re being counseled and we will continue to be counseled throughout the year that wisdom is more important than any other thing that we could acquire in this life because wisdom will show us how to achieve anything else. And, so, this is a foundational, fundamental piece of our existence. In fact, the voice of wisdom told us that You Father used her, when You created the world You used wisdom. And, so, making this wisdom available to us, why would we ever not pursue this with all of our hearts? That's the great mystery. But come Holy Spirit because we've pursued all kinds of things in all kinds of directions and most of those directions have been wrong directions. And as we reflect back on it, we realize wisdom was the thing to sort of left in the dust. So, come Holy Spirit we want to wise as we move through this year and we won't be able to do that on our own. We need Your help. There’s too many distractions, there’s too many things pulling us in too many directions. And, so, we need You. Come Holy Spirit we pray. Show us the path of wisdom we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its homebase, its where you find out what’s going on around here.

I will remind you of the sister programs to the Daily Audio Bible because we talked about wisdom again. And, so where talking about the book of Proverbs. And the Daily Audio Proverb is available every single day. We go through the entire book of Proverbs, a chapter a day and so, through the whole book each month. And just kind of pouring that into your life is one of the ways to get wisdom, right? I mean to understand the voice of wisdom and the kinds of things that wisdom wants to talk about is something that we find the book of Proverbs and it takes two minutes a day. Like adding two minutes of Scripture more than you already are into you are into your life, maybe like listening to Daily Audio Bible in the morning but taking two extra minutes at some point in the day to pour unfiltered wisdom, like the wisdom of the ages into your life. What will that do for you? So, check that out, Daily Audio Proverb. There’s also the Daily Audio Psalm where we’re going to the Psalms, just like we are on Daily Audio Bible but in a nice, compact, five minutes. You know, whatever you can pour into your life is a helpful thing because you’re pouring the words of life into your heart. So, these resources are available. Of course, Daily Audio Bible Chronological is a channel and then we have the foreign languages, and I say foreign because English is my native tongue. So, it's foreign to me, but if English is a second language or third language or fourth language for you and you speak another native tongue, maybe we have a community using that language. So, we have Daily Audio Bible Spanish for Spanish speakers in Espanola. So, there's the Daily Audio Bible as we’re doing but they also have Psalms and Proverbs in the in Spanish. We have Daily Audio Bible, Chinese, Arabic, French - and French has Psalms and Proverbs as well – Portuguese…oh I don’t have the list in front of me…but all of those channels are available in the Daily Audio Bible app in the Daily Audio Bible player and I wherever it is that you get your podcasts. So, just want to make sure that, you know, these resources are available and ongoing. It is our mission to bring God's spoken word to anyone who will listen to it and that's been the rhythm of this community. And, so, there are number of ways to do that. And Daily Audio Bible Proverb was created for no other reason than to make it simple. Like wisdom isn't as complicated as we might make it out to be or is mysterious as we might make it out to be, its calling from everywhere and if we start the book of Proverbs that's what it's telling us, it's calling to us from everywhere. So, we need to learn it’s voice and reading through the book of Proverbs gets us very familiar. So, check these resources out.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is 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, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

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:

Hi DABbers, this is Slave of Jesus in North Carolina, all right, Holy Spirit let’s roll. Justin from SoCal welcome back to the DAB, good to hear from you. The first of the year some of us get some automatic raises. Gotta take the time to go in and update your donations to the DAB. Doing it monthly. I actually changed the __ , it’s really easy, took about 12 seconds to do it. Lord we ask you to watch in and all the prayers for longtime marriages, especially those who have been separated and separated now. We know the enemy wants to destroy these marriages, so he can take away the shining example of your love in a marriage. And in all the prayers from Nick and Alex the wrestlers. Lord, we ask you to give them the motivation to do things in their life and help their family deal with that of their doing. Amen. All the prayers from the Prodigal, but prodigal, waiting for you to call and for others. I mean, calling in on New Year’s Eve. But it sounds like the enemy is telling you a bunch of lies because I am hearing you repeat some of those lies and the biggest what I heard was you don’t have a family. You have a huge family. You know, you have hundreds of DABbers, probably thousands of DABbers praying for you out loud, out loud. There are pastors and priests that wish they had thousand people praying for them out loud. But you’ve got to realize that this DAB is a family. For those of you that have the family Christmas’s, I download those and keep those on my phone. You listen to a few hours of a family Christmas and you are this heaven on earth…this is what a true family is, not our biological messes that we deal with, this is a true family, spiritual family that we all have. You’ve got that prodigal. So, you are definitely part of our…brother prodigal. So, I love you brother. You’ve got tons of brothers and sisters right here in the DAB. So, just please don’t forget that. Don’t let the enemy lie to you about that. Don’t let the enemy lie because he puts it in your head and you repeat it you’re putting a curse on yourself. So, I hope you say I huge family. Love you all, have a great day. Bye.

Hello Daily Audio Bible family it is a blessing and a pleasure to continue on and on and on. This is my third-year in, I’m fairly new, but it feels like I’ve been doing this for a very long time. I’m so happy to be a part. I just want you all to pray for me, pray that God would continue to lead, guide, and protect me. God also, heal. I’m going through some medical situations, but surgery is required. I’m asking you all to pray, pray together for me that God would heal me or His will it be done and whatever His decision is it will be well done. If He allows me to go through the surgery I’m thanking Him that He would be the operator, He would be the surgeon. I thank you for highlighting me in your prayer and acknowledging that I am a part of this family. Thank you so much. My name is Marjorie.

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family, this is Jay from Nashville Tennessee. I want to welcome all the new listeners this year. This is such an amazing community. I’ve been through some things, I’ve done a lot of things that I shouldn’t have done and throughout it all this community has been there for me, has prayed for me, has encouraged me, has pulled me out of darkness. Sometimes when we do things that we know we’re not supposed to do and it’s time to face the music, to face the consequences, sometimes it’s hard to bear and in my case I nearly lost my mind. I’m a firm believer that if it were not for the Daily Audio Bible and this community of people around the world that are praying every single day, I’m not sure exactly where I would be. If it wasn’t for the numerous people calling out my name and saying we hear you, we love you, and we’re praying for you. Even in times where I didn’t hear my name I felt the prayers. It’s just a feeling that you…you really can’t describe. And we’re not just only on the Daily Audio Bible, we’re on Facebook and we’re also on the Daily Audio Bible website. So, if you are dealing with something and you don’t want to do it alone, call, we’re here for you and we love you.

Good morning DABbers, today is January 9th, my name is Brandon, I’m from Maryland. I’m calling with a broken heart for my wife, my family, myself. I’ve hurt my wife badly enough to where she needs to go…she feels she needs to go to a support group. We’re each seeing therapists, we’re starting marriage counseling on the 16th and I’m just asking you guys, my family, whom I don’t know, I’m asking you guys just to pray for my wife and I, that I recognize what I have done to her, the wife of my youth, the love of my life, and I’ve completely screwed it all up. I just pray Father that You lay that on my heart and You fill that piece of my broken heart up with your love, your grace, your mercy Father, and I show that to my lovely wife. Thank you all for your prayers and I look forward to all the miracles done in 2019.

we as children of Light (in Love) have become the Temple of our Creator

holding within the sacred treasure of the Spirit and the Word as the purest gold of the heart, just as the Ark of the Covenant that is held and guarded in the inner room

and we see this illuminated in Today’s reading of the Scriptures in the Letter of 2nd Corinthians with chapter 6:

[Staying at Our Post]

Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,

I heard your call in the nick of time;

The day you needed me, I was there to help.

Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated—or not—in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly . . . in hard times, tough times, bad times; when we’re beaten up, jailed, and mobbed; working hard, working late, working without eating; with pure heart, clear head, steady hand; in gentleness, holiness, and honest love; when we’re telling the truth, and when God’s showing his power; when we’re doing our best setting things right; when we’re praised, and when we’re blamed; slandered, and honored; true to our word, though distrusted; ignored by the world, but recognized by God; terrifically alive, though rumored to be dead; beaten within an inch of our lives, but refusing to die; immersed in tears, yet always filled with deep joy; living on handouts, yet enriching many; having nothing, having it all.

Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!

Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way:

“I’ll live in them, move into them;

I’ll be their God and they’ll be my people.

So leave the corruption and compromise;

leave it for good,” says God.

“Don’t link up with those who will pollute you.

I want you all for myself.

I’ll be a Father to you;

you’ll be sons and daughters to me.”

The Word of the Master, God.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 6 (The Message)

A chapter of the New Testament accompanied by chapter 35 in the book of Genesis where we see a cleansing of idols along with Jacob’s name changed to Israel:

God spoke to Jacob: “Go back to Bethel. Stay there and build an altar to the God who revealed himself to you when you were running for your life from your brother Esau.”

Jacob told his family and all those who lived with him, “Throw out all the alien gods which you have, take a good bath and put on clean clothes, we’re going to Bethel. I’m going to build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and has stuck with me everywhere I’ve gone since.”

They turned over to Jacob all the alien gods they’d been holding on to, along with their lucky-charm earrings. Jacob buried them under the oak tree in Shechem. Then they set out. A paralyzing fear descended on all the surrounding villages so that they were unable to pursue the sons of Jacob.

Jacob and his company arrived at Luz, that is, Bethel, in the land of Canaan. He built an altar there and named it El-Bethel (God-of-Bethel) because that’s where God revealed himself to him when he was running from his brother.

And that’s when Rebekah’s nurse, Deborah, died. She was buried just below Bethel under the oak tree. It was named Allon-Bacuth (Weeping-Oak).

God revealed himself once again to Jacob, after he had come back from Paddan Aram and blessed him: “Your name is Jacob (Heel); but that’s your name no longer. From now on your name is Israel (God-Wrestler).”

God continued,

I am The Strong God.

Have children! Flourish!

A nation—a whole company of nations!—

will come from you.

Kings will come from your loins;

the land I gave Abraham and Isaac

I now give to you,

and pass it on to your descendants.

And then God was gone, ascended from the place where he had spoken with him.

Jacob set up a stone pillar on the spot where God had spoken with him. He poured a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. Jacob dedicated the place where God had spoken with him, Bethel (God’s-House).

They left Bethel. They were still quite a ways from Ephrath when Rachel went into labor—hard, hard labor. When her labor pains were at their worst, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid—you have another boy.”

With her last breath, for she was now dying, she named him Ben-oni (Son-of-My-Pain), but his father named him Ben-jamin (Son-of-Good-Fortune).

Rachel died and was buried on the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar to mark her grave. It is still there today, “Rachel’s Grave Stone.”

Israel kept on his way and set up camp at Migdal Eder. While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went and slept with his father’s concubine, Bilhah. And Israel heard of what he did.

There were twelve sons of Jacob.

The sons by Leah:

Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn

Simeon

Levi

Judah

Issachar

Zebulun.

The sons by Rachel:

Joseph

Benjamin.

The sons by Bilhah, Rachel’s maid:

Dan

Naphtali.

The sons by Zilpah, Leah’s maid:

Gad

Asher.

These were Jacob’s sons, born to him in Paddan Aram.

Finally, Jacob made it back home to his father Isaac at Mamre in Kiriath Arba, present-day Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had lived. Isaac was now 180 years old. Isaac breathed his last and died—an old man full of years. He was buried with his family by his sons Esau and Jacob.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 35 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for monday, march 2 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

“i love you” written in a Letter

is seen in Today’s reading of the Scriptures from chapter #2 of 2nd Corinthians:

That’s why I decided not to make another visit that could only be painful to both of us. If by merely showing up I would put you in an embarrassingly painful position, how would you then be free to cheer and refresh me?

That was my reason for writing a letter instead of coming—so I wouldn’t have to spend a miserable time disappointing the very friends I had looked forward to cheering me up. I was convinced at the time I wrote it that what was best for me was also best for you. As it turned out, there was pain enough just in writing that letter, more tears than ink on the parchment. But I didn’t write it to cause pain; I wrote it so you would know how much I care—oh, more than care—love you!

Now, regarding the one who started all this—the person in question who caused all this pain—I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.

The focus of my letter wasn’t on punishing the offender but on getting you to take responsibility for the health of the church. So if you forgive him, I forgive him. Don’t think I’m carrying around a list of personal grudges. The fact is that I’m joining in with your forgiveness, as Christ is with us, guiding us. After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give Satan an opening for yet more mischief—we’re not oblivious to his sly ways!

[An Open Door]

When I arrived in Troas to proclaim the Message of the Messiah, I found the place wide open: God had opened the door; all I had to do was walk through it. But when I didn’t find Titus waiting for me with news of your condition, I couldn’t relax. Worried about you, I left and came on to Macedonia province looking for Titus and a reassuring word on you. And I got it, thank God!

In the Messiah, in Christ, God leads us from place to place in one perpetual victory parade. Through us, he brings knowledge of Christ. Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with life. But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.

The Letter of 2nd Corinthians, Chapter 2 (The Message)

and in the paired chapter of Genesis 31 we read of when Jacob went on a journey to return to where he was born:

Jacob learned that Laban’s sons were talking behind his back: “Jacob has used our father’s wealth to make himself rich at our father’s expense.” At the same time, Jacob noticed that Laban had changed toward him. He wasn’t treating him the same.

That’s when God said to Jacob, “Go back home where you were born. I’ll go with you.”

So Jacob sent word for Rachel and Leah to meet him out in the field where his flocks were. He said, “I notice that your father has changed toward me; he doesn’t treat me the same as before. But the God of my father hasn’t changed; he’s still with me. You know how hard I’ve worked for your father. Still, your father has cheated me over and over, changing my wages time and again. But God never let him really hurt me. If he said, ‘Your wages will consist of speckled animals’ the whole flock would start having speckled lambs and kids. And if he said, ‘From now on your wages will be streaked animals’ the whole flock would have streaked ones. Over and over God used your father’s livestock to reward me.

“Once, while the flocks were mating, I had a dream and saw the billy goats, all of them streaked, speckled, and mottled, mounting their mates. In the dream an angel of God called out to me, ‘Jacob!’

“I said, ‘Yes?’

“He said, ‘Watch closely. Notice that all the goats in the flock that are mating are streaked, speckled, and mottled. I know what Laban’s been doing to you. I’m the God of Bethel where you consecrated a pillar and made a vow to me. Now be on your way, get out of this place, go home to your birthplace.’”

Rachel and Leah said, “Has he treated us any better? Aren’t we treated worse than outsiders? All he wanted was the money he got from selling us, and he’s spent all that. Any wealth that God has seen fit to return to us from our father is justly ours and our children’s. Go ahead. Do what God told you.”

Jacob did it. He put his children and his wives on camels and gathered all his livestock and everything he had gotten, everything acquired in Paddan Aram, to go back home to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan.

Laban was off shearing sheep. Rachel stole her father’s household gods. And Jacob had concealed his plans so well that Laban the Aramean had no idea what was going on—he was totally in the dark. Jacob got away with everything he had and was soon across the Euphrates headed for the hill country of Gilead.

Three days later, Laban got the news: “Jacob’s run off.” Laban rounded up his relatives and chased after him. Seven days later they caught up with him in the hill country of Gilead. That night God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream and said, “Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.”

When Laban reached him, Jacob’s tents were pitched in the Gilead mountains; Laban pitched his tents there, too.

“What do you mean,” said Laban, “by keeping me in the dark and sneaking off, hauling my daughters off like prisoners of war? Why did you run off like a thief in the night? Why didn’t you tell me? Why, I would have sent you off with a great celebration—music, timbrels, flutes! But you wouldn’t permit me so much as a kiss for my daughters and grandchildren. It was a stupid thing for you to do. If I had a mind to, I could destroy you right now, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, ‘Be careful what you do to Jacob, whether good or bad.’ I understand. You left because you were homesick. But why did you steal my household gods?”

Jacob answered Laban, “I was afraid. I thought you would take your daughters away from me by brute force. But as far as your gods are concerned, if you find that anybody here has them, that person dies. With all of us watching, look around. If you find anything here that belongs to you, take it.” Jacob didn’t know that Rachel had stolen the gods.

Laban went through Jacob’s tent, Leah’s tent, and the tents of the two maids but didn’t find them. He went from Leah’s tent to Rachel’s. But Rachel had taken the household gods, put them inside a camel cushion, and was sitting on them. When Laban had gone through the tent, searching high and low without finding a thing, Rachel said to her father, “Don’t think I’m being disrespectful, my master, that I can’t stand before you, but I’m having my period.” So even though he turned the place upside down in his search, he didn’t find the household gods.

Now it was Jacob’s turn to get angry. He lit into Laban: “So what’s my crime, what wrong have I done you that you badger me like this? You’ve ransacked the place. Have you turned up a single thing that’s yours? Let’s see it—display the evidence. Our two families can be the jury and decide between us.

“In the twenty years I’ve worked for you, ewes and she-goats never miscarried. I never feasted on the rams from your flock. I never brought you a torn carcass killed by wild animals but that I paid for it out of my own pocket—actually, you made me pay whether it was my fault or not. I was out in all kinds of weather, from torrid heat to freezing cold, putting in many a sleepless night. For twenty years I’ve done this: I slaved away fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flock and you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not stuck with me, you would have sent me off penniless. But God saw the fix I was in and how hard I had worked and last night rendered his verdict.”

Laban defended himself: “The daughters are my daughters, the children are my children, the flock is my flock—everything you see is mine. But what can I do about my daughters or for the children they’ve had? So let’s settle things between us, make a covenant—God will be the witness between us.”

Jacob took a stone and set it upright as a pillar.

Jacob called his family around, “Get stones!” They gathered stones and heaped them up and then ate there beside the pile of stones. Laban named it in Aramaic, Yegar-sahadutha (Witness Monument); Jacob echoed the naming in Hebrew, Galeed (Witness Monument).

Laban said, “This monument of stones will be a witness, beginning now, between you and me.” (That’s why it is called Galeed—Witness Monument.) It is also called Mizpah (Watchtower) because Laban said, “God keep watch between you and me when we are out of each other’s sight. If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives when there’s no one around to see you, God will see you and stand witness between us.”

Laban continued to Jacob, “This monument of stones and this stone pillar that I have set up is a witness, a witness that I won’t cross this line to hurt you and you won’t cross this line to hurt me. The God of Abraham and the God of Nahor (the God of their ancestor) will keep things straight between us.”

Jacob promised, swearing by the Fear, the God of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and worshiped, calling in all his family members to the meal. They ate and slept that night on the mountain. Laban got up early the next morning, kissed his grandchildren and his daughters, blessed them, and then set off for home.

The Book of Genesis, Chapter 31 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for Thursday, february 27 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs