Nahum 1-3; John 5
Heather Barnes
Nahum 1:7 The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in him.
John 5:19 So Jesus explained, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever thr Father does, the Son also does. 20 For thr Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing, In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished. 21 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. 22 In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge, 23 so that everyone will honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him,
John 5:44 No wonder you can't believe! For you gladly honor each other, but don't care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.
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Reflections on Honor, Knowledge, and Governance
I find it profoundly interesting how conversations about honor on Gor often focus on the bond between father and son, or the respect exchanged between individuals. Yet, there's a striking disconnect: while they meticulously honor these earthly bonds, they seem to disregard any honor stemming from the divine. It's a stark comparison, I know, but one that resonates deeply as I move through this world.
Here I am, a magistrate in the world of Gor, observing its cities. There are the Five High Castes, ostensibly guiding and leading, yet I see individuals among them who claim to run entire cities, wielding power because they can afford a plot of land or a segment of a caste. They proclaim their actions as "honor," but without truly understanding the deep-seated rules and traditions that should guide a polis. They neglect to study the very scrolls and books that define their society's principles.
This leads me to a parallel in our own lives. How many times do we, myself included, fail to study the ancient scrolls of our own world – the Bible, a book overflowing with profound knowledge and guiding principles? We don't delve into its wisdom as we should. I wonder how often we choose to honor what we desire, rather than what is truly right.
Just as a city cannot run well if only a single caste, be it Builders, Warriors, or Scribes, attempts to dictate everything without understanding the interconnectedness of all parts, so too does our world need balance. Divine intention, as I understand it, calls for a balanced world, complete with checks and balances, ensuring every person receives what they need and possesses their own measure of honor. If we neglect to study the source – the foundational book of principles – we can never truly grasp what honor means. We can claim it, demand it, but without genuine understanding, it remains an empty declaration. A warrior may assert control, a scribe may seek to govern all, but without acknowledging the inherent balance intended for all of society, true honor remains elusive.
It is an interesting thought, is it not? How the pursuit of knowledge – both in Gor and in our own lives – is often overlooked in favor of perceived power, and how true honor can only be found in embracing the complete, balanced truth.
- Kati Evans
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Daily Bible Reading and Reflection
Created with Smart Noter
Summary
The recording is a daily Bible reading and reflection session led by Heather. The session begins with an introduction to the day's readings from the Book of Nahum, chapters 1 through 3, and the Gospel of John, chapter 5. Heather provides historical context for Nahum, explaining its timeline relative to the Book of Jonah. The reading from Nahum focuses on God's judgment against Nineveh, highlighting themes of divine vengeance, justice, and the eventual downfall of the Assyrian empire. The reading from John describes Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda and the subsequent conflict with Jewish leaders over Sabbath laws. Jesus explains his divine authority and relationship with God the Father, emphasizing that the Scriptures point to him as the source of eternal life. Heather reflects on the importance of recognizing God's love through Jesus, contrasting it with the religious leaders' focus on rules and control. The session concludes with prayers for guidance, peace, and the fulfillment of God's purpose.
Key Topics
Introduction and Context
Heather introduces the session, mentioning the date and the purpose of gathering to read the Scriptures. She explains that the readings are from Nahum and John, and provides historical context for Nahum, noting its timeline relative to Jonah's story.
Reading from Nahum
The reading from Nahum chapters 1 through 3 focuses on God's judgment against Nineveh. It describes God's vengeance, the destruction of Nineveh, and the eventual liberation of Judah from Assyrian oppression. The text emphasizes God's power and justice.
Reading from John
The reading from John chapter 5 recounts Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda. The Jewish leaders challenge Jesus for performing the miracle on the Sabbath. Jesus explains his divine authority, his relationship with God the Father, and the importance of recognizing him as the source of eternal life.
Reflection and Prayer
Heather reflects on the readings, emphasizing the importance of recognizing God's love through Jesus. She contrasts this with the religious leaders' focus on rules and control. The session concludes with prayers for guidance, peace, and the fulfillment of God's purpose.
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Daily Bible Reading and Reflection
Created with Smart Noter
Heather Barnes 00:04 Good day to you all and welcome to this third day of August. It is day two hundred and fifteen in our journey through the Scriptures. Hello out there to everyone. My name is Heather and I am here with you most Sundays. And we're about to do what we do every day here. We are coming together to the Scriptures not because they are life in themselves, but because they bear witness to Jesus, the source source of our life. So we are gathering with people from all around the world and asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate these Scriptures so that we are able to see Jesus and have our hearts and minds reoriented to the reality of our life in God and together be strengthened, reassured and encouraged in the love of God. Today's readings are going to be Nahum Chapters one through three in John John five. As we start out in the Book of Nahum today, we'll be hearing what Nahum is saying to the people of Nineveh.
Heather Barnes 01:12 Just to help give us a little bit of timeline perspective, Book of Nahum was written about a hundred to one hundred fifty years after Jonah interceded for the Ninevites. So with that tucked into the back of our minds, let's jump right in. Nahum Chapter one. This message concerning Nineveh came as a vision to Nahum who lived in Elkosh. The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies. The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet. At his command, the oceans dry up and the rivers disappear. The lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade and the green forests of Lebanon wither in his presence. The mountains quake and the hills melt away.
Heather Barnes 02:25 The earth trembles and its people are destroyed. Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence. The Lord is good, a strong refuge when trouble comes. He is close to those who trust in Him. But he will sweep away his enemies in an overwhelming flood. He will pursue his foes into the darkness of night. Why are you scheming against the Lord? He will destroy you with one blow. He won't need to strike twice. His enemies, tangled like thorn bushes and staggering like drunks, will be burned up like dry stubble in a field. Who is this wicked counselor of yours who plots evil against the Lord? This is what the Lord. Though the Assyrians have many allies, they will be destroyed and disappear. O my people, I have punished you before, but I will not punish you again.
Heather Barnes 03:37 Now I will break the yoke of bondage from your neck and tear off the chains of Assyrian oppression. And this is what the Lord says concerning the Assyrians. In will have no more children to carry on your name. I will destroy all the idols in the temples of your gods. I am preparing a grave for you because you are despicable. Look, a messenger is coming over the mountains with good news. He is bringing a message of peace. Celebrate your festivals, O people of Judah, and fulfill all your vows, for your wicked enemies will never invade your land again. They will be completely destroyed. Nahum Chapter two Your enemy is coming to crush you, Nineveh. Man the ramparts. Watch the roads. Prepare your defenses. Call out your forces. Even though the destroyer has destroyed Judah, the Lord will restore its honor. Israel's vine has been stripped of branches, but he will restore its splendor.
Heather Barnes 04:49 Shields flash red in the sunlight. See the scarlet uniforms of the valiant troops. Watch as their glittering chariots move into position with a force of spears waving above them. The chariots race recklessly along the streets and rush wildly through the squares. They flash like firelight and move as swiftly as lightning. The king shouts to his officers. They stumble in their haste, rushing to the walls to set up their defenses. The river gates have been torn open. The palace is about to collapse. Nineveh's exile has been decreed, and all the servant girls mourn its capture. They moan like doves and beat their breasts in sorrow. Nineveh is like a leaking water reservoir. The people are slipping away. Stop. Stop. Someone shouts, but no one even looks back. Loot the silver pl under the gold. There's no end to Nineveh's treasures. It's vast, uncounted wealth.
Heather Barnes 05:58 Soon the city is plundered, empty and ruined. Hearts melt and knees shake. The people stand aghast, their faces pale and trembling. Where now is that great Nineveh, that den filled with young lions? It was a place where people like lions and their cubs walked freely and without fear. Tore up meat for his cubs and strangled prey for his mate. He filled his den with prey, his caverns with his plunder. I am your enemy, says the Lord of Heaven's armies. Your chariots will soon go up in smoke. Your young men will be killed in battle. Never again will you plunder conquered nations. The voices of your proud messengers will be heard no more. Nahum Chapter three what sorrow Awaits Nineveh, this city of murder and lies. She is crammed with wealth and is never without victims. Hear the crack of whips, the rumble of wheels, Horses hooves pound and chariots clatter wildly.
Heather Barnes 07:14 See the flashing swords and glittering spears as the charioteers charge past. There are countless casualties, heaps of bodies, so many bodies that people stumble over them. All this because Nineveh, the beautiful and faithless city, mistress of deadly charms, enticed the nations with her beauty. She taught them all her magic, enchanting people everywhere. I am your enemy, says the Lord of heaven's armies. And now I will lift your skirts and show all the earth your nakedness and shame. I will cover you with filth and show the world how vile you really are. All who see you will shrink back and say, nineveh lies in ruins. Where are the mourners? Does anyone regret your destruction? Are you any better than the city of Thebes, situated on the Nile river, surrounded by water, she was protected by the river on all sides, walled in by water. Ethiopia and the land of Egypt gave unlimited assistance.
Heather Barnes 08:25 The nations of Purpose and Libya were among her allies. Yet Thebes fell and her people were led away as captives. Her babies were dashed to death against the stones of the streets. Soldiers threw dice to get Egyptian officers as servants. All their leaders were bound in chains. And you, Nineveh, will also stagger like a drunkard. You will hide for fear of the attacking enemy. All your fortresses will fall. They will be devoured like the ripe figs fall into the mouths of those who shake the trees. Your troops will be as weak and helpless as women. The gates of your land will be opened wide to the enemy and set on fire and burned. Get ready for the siege. Store up water, strengthen the defenses. Go into the pits to trample clay and pack it into molds, making bricks to repair the walls. But the fire will devour you. You, the sword will cut you down. The enemy will consume you like locusts, devouring everything they see.
Heather Barnes 09:35 There will be no escape even if you multiply. Like swarming locusts, your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly away. Your guards and officials are also like swarming locusts that crowd together in the heavens on a cold day. But like locusts that fly away when the sun comes up, all of them will fly away and disappear. Your shepherds are asleep, O Assyrian king. Your princes lie dead in the dust. Your people are scattered across the mountains, with no one to gather them together. There is no healing for your wound. Your injury is fatal. All who hear of your destruction will clap their hands for joy. Where can anyone be found who has not suffered from your continual cruelty? John, Chapter five. Afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the sheep gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches.
Heather Barnes 10:53 Crowds of sick people, blind, lame or paralyzed, lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, would you like to get well? I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool. When the water bubbles up, someone else always gets there ahead of me. Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat and walk. Instantly, the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. But this miracle happened on the Sabbath. So the Jewish leaders objected. They said, said to the man who was cured, you can't work on the Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat. But he replied, the man who healed me told me, pick up your mat and walk. Who said such a thing as that? They demanded. The man didn't know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd.
Heather Barnes 12:06 But afterward, Jesus. Jesus found him in the temple and told him, now you are well, so stop sinning, or something even worse may happen to you. Then the man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had healed him. So the Jewish leaders began harassing Jesus for breaking the Sabbath rules. But Jesus replied, my Father is always working, and so am I. So the Jewish leaders tried all the harder to find a way to kill Him. For he not only broke the Sabbath, he called God his Father, thereby making Himself equal with God. So Jesus explained, I tell you the truth. The Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.
Heather Barnes 13:15 For just as the Father gives life to those he raises from the dead, so the Son gives life to anyone he wants. In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge so that everyone will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent Him. I tell you the truth. Those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their their sins that they have already passed from death into life. And I assure you that the time is coming. Indeed it's here now, when the dead will hear my voice. The voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live. The Father has life in himself. And he has granted that same life giving power to His Son. And he has given him authority to judge everyone. Because he is the Son of Man.
Heather Barnes 14:23 Don't be so surprised. Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God's Son. And they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life. And those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment. I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just. Because I carry out the will of the One who sent me, not my own will. If I were to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid. But someone else is also testifying about me. And I assure you that everything he says about me is true. In fact, you sent investigators to listen to John the Baptist. And his testimony about me was true. Of course, I have no need of human witnesses. But I say these things so you might be saved. John was like a burning and shining lamp. And you were excited for a while about his message.
Heather Barnes 15:33 But I have a great greater witness than John. My teachings and my miracles. The Father gave me these works to accomplish. And they prove that he sent me. And the Father who sent me has testified about me Himself. You have never heard his voice or seen him face to face. And you do not have his message in your hearts because you do not believe Me, the One he sent to you. You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. Yet the Scriptures point to Me. Yet you refuse to come to Me to receive this life. Your approval means nothing to me. Because I know you don't have God's love within you. For I have come to you in my Father's name and you have rejected me. Yet if other things come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. No wonder you can't believe. For you gladly honor each other. But you don't care about the honor that comes from the One who alone is God.
Heather Barnes 16:39 Yet it isn't I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you. Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. If you really believe Moses, you would believe me because he wrote about me. But since you don't believe what he wrote, how will you Believe what I say. In John five forty one, Jesus tells the religious leaders, your approval means nothing to me because you don't have God's love in you. God's love is there. God's love came into the world for all people, including these he's talking to. But they don't recognize him or his love. They have made no room in their hearts for the love of God. It does not resonate in them because they are obsessed with control, power, the rule book, judgment and wrath. And they are missing out on experiencing God's love. You study the Scriptures diligently, Jesus says, because you think that in them you have eternal life.
Heather Barnes 17:53 But the Scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. Love was standing right there in front of them in the person of Jesus. God's love was there. They just refused to recognize it. Today we have a choice to come to him. We might be struggling to recognize him because of what we have been told. You may have missed him because you've been told that he is about power and control, rules and wrath and judgment. While John is telling us that he is love and his love is already there in our hearts waiting for us to recognize him. The prayer of Hunter and I at daily Bible is that we will see it, that we will come to the one who is what we've always hoped for and sought, the one who is love. And now let's pray together. Lord God Almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day. Preserve us with your mighty power that we might not fall into sin or be overcome by adversity.
Heather Barnes 19:23 And in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far and those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you. Bring the nations into your, pour out your spirit on all flesh and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And now, Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is despair, vote. Where there is darkness, light, and where there is sadness, joy. O Lord, grant that I might not seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in the giving that we receive, in the pardoning that we are pardoned.
Heather Barnes 20:43 It is in the dying that we are born unto eternal life. Amen. And now, as our Lord has taught us, we are bold to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food. Now send us forth as forgiven people, healed and renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ. Amen. Dailyradiobible dot com that's our home base out here on the interwebs where you are the on always welcome to come and stop by. Thank you for spending a few minutes of your time here today with us.
Heather Barnes 22:09 We cannot do any of this without you, so thank you for being here. Don't forget to like, share and subscribe to this podcast. Rate and review us as well. And if you would like to receive our once a month email newsletter.
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