DBRP_351Phil'sPlans

I want to tell you my plans for 2017.

Just before the new year, I will put out a short introductory podcast about the Digging Deeper reading plan and podcasts. I will post this on the DBRP web page and in the Digging Deeper Facebook Group. If you have liked the DBRP this year, please share the introductory podcast with your friends.

Right before New Year’s day, it would be great if you would adorn the Digging Deeper Facebook group with some comments about the DBRP, because I anticipate that January 1-2 will be the highest time of the year for people to visit our web site and the Facebook group. The very last days of 2016 are the strategic times to encourage others to make the New Year’s resolution to try harder to read the whole Bible in 2017. Please make a post telling why you would encourage others to use the DD reading plan or listen to the podcasts. Please don’t praise me in your message. That won’t help me or the visitors. Instead, talk about things like the pacing of the reading plan, or insights you found, or ways the Scripture has blessed you this year. Best of all, could some of you share a story that shows the effect that God’s Word brought to your life this year?

Here’s my plan for next year: I will re-release two podcasts per day— rebroadcasting the 2015 NLT series of recordings, and the 2016 GNT series. The reason I am re-releasing them is to make it convenient for the people who start at the beginning of the year using the various listening apps. If you’re one of the many who will not finish the 2016 series by December 31st, I encourage you to just keep going! You don’t want to miss way the DBRP plan keeps getting more powerful the closer you get toward the end of the year.

The new thing I am planning is to make another completely different series of podcasts which will go deeper into the New Testament. I will be reading from a completely new translation and adding more detailed commentary. This series will really be Digging Deeper, and is intended for those who want more insight. I hope I can keep to a schedule of publishing once every week. I’ll try to do a sample before the start of the new year, so you can see if you want to join in the group. I hope that people will do more than listen, but actually join in discussing with me.

My new podcast series is not intended to meet anyone’s daily devotional needs. I just invite you to add it to what you will do in the new year. If you have listened to me read to you for a year, I encourage you to find something new for your daily devotions next year. I have only found two read-the-whole-Bible in-one-year podcasts: The Daily Audio Bible with Brian Hardin, and the Daily Radio Bible with Hunter Barnes. Both are slicker productions than mine! And I am shocked that so far I have not found any other one-year whole-Bible podcasts. If you find another, please let me know. If some of you are considering doing your own Bible podcast, I say, “Do it!” Obviously there’s plenty of space for your voice to be heard. If any of you would like a few how-to-get started pointers, just let me know. My e-mail address is in the episode notes. (phil dot fields at pbti dot org)

News about our family: Our oldest child, David, is a principal in a tech company that deals the management of large amounts of data, and interpreting of that data to make intelligent business decisions. (solve100.com) He with his wife Jen, and their kids Luke and Laura are 13 and 11, and are all “doing us proud.” Our next child is Rachel, who just returned to Tanzania (east Africa) for 6-9 months to wrap up her management of finances for the mission team there. Her health is a bit better than when she came home 7 months ago, but unfortunately, still not good enough to stay long-term in Tanzania. (My wife, Gale, and our daughter Rachel have many of the same health challenges.) We all praise the Lord that Pioneer Bible Translators has said that her branch-level finance experience will be invaluable in the home office in Dallas. That’s where she’ll relocate after she gets back from Tanzania. For more information, see the episode notes. (Here’s the link for donating to support Rachel.)

We are just back at home from spending time with Hannah and Brandon’s family in Seattle. Their children are Ava 8, Joel soon to be 7, and Devan 9 months. They will never be allowed to return to their former ministry in Pakistan, but we praise the Lord that He has given new a ministry to them in Jakarta, Indonesia. Jakarta happens to be a place where refugees from Afghanistan and Iran get stuck in their processing. Some of these refugees bring their children. Brandon will be managing learning centers teaching the children of these refugees, which is a ministry that has been set up by the church I attend in Jakarta. Such refugees are very receptive to the Gospel, and that church’s ministries are bearing much fruit among them. Brandon and the family are scheduled to go to Indonesia in June. This new assignment means that they will need more financial support, but their temporary job in Seattle makes it very difficult to develop new support contacts. (They are currently ministering to refugees in Seattle.)  If you would like to join their prayer team, you can contact them via the link in the episode notes. (brandonbaughn at gmail dot com) I am thrilled that I will now be able to visit Hannah and Brandon’s family on my twice per year trips to Indonesia.

Thanks for your prayers for all our family.

Check out this episode!

DBRP_351 HAB.1 HAB.2 ISA.55 REV.8

HABAKKUK 1-2:
The book of Nahum ended with these words about Nineveh:

19 NLT 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?

And now we turn to the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk preached at the time when it was already clear—  through the means of prophecy and conquest, that Babylon would defeat Judah. This was between 627 and 605 BC, which would have been at the same time as Jeremiah, Nahum, Zephaniah were living, and Daniel may have been a young boy.

We often hear people questioning how God could be good and loving and allow various disasters or evil things to happen. And Habakkuk asks that question, and another: “Why do You, God, use a nation that is more sinful than we are to punish us?”

Mears gives this neat outline of the three chapters of Habakkuk:

1. Watch and see
2. Stand and see
3. Kneel and see

ISAIAH 55:
Perhaps you noticed that Isaiah 54:1 was quoted by Paul in Gal. 4:27.

And did Isaiah 54:11-12 cause you to think of Revelation? In just a few days in our reading of Revelation we will hear about precious gems used in building the New Jerusalem.

REVELATION 8:
Remember that in Rev. 7 we saw first the 144,000 from the tribes of Israel. 144,000 = 12 x 12,000. Remember, numbers in Revelation have symbolic meanings! Now the question is whether the next group that John sees is the same group or a different one. He says that they were “a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language.”

Look closer at God’s Word and you will always see that it is very deep. Look closely at the names of the 12 tribes! Notice that the list has been altered from the normal list repeated in the Old Testament. Which tribes are missing? Which tribe is doubled up? Note that the answers to this may hold a clue as to whether the 144,000 is made up only of ethnic Jews. There is gold to dig for here!

Check out this episode!

DBRP_350 NAM.3 ISA.54 REV.7

NAHUM 3:
Yesterday we heard just how Nineveh’s defenses would be breached. The description was detailed and vivid, including the scarlet color of the enemy uniforms and the way chariots would rumble recklessly in the city streets after the river gate was torn open. God justly judged this city for its cruelty to others.

ISAIAH 54:
In Isaiah 53:10 it says,

But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.

Often literal translations give a meaning that can hardly be conceived of— saying that the Lord was ‘pleased’. The pleasure of the Lord means that it was His will or decision— which is why Jesus received a No answer in the garden of Gethsemane. Seeing His Son suffer so much certainly caused great sorrow! Think how Abraham felt when he was about to sacrifice his son, Isaac!

Also Isaiah 53 ends with the idea that Jesus ‘intercedes for the rebels’— which is us. This is echoed in Hebrews 7 in the teaching that Jesus is our great High Priest.

24 NLT But because Jesus lives forever, his priesthood lasts forever.
25 Therefore he is able, once and forever, to save those who come to God through him. He lives forever to intercede with God on their behalf.

REVELATION 7:
In Revelation chapter 5 we heard what happened when Jesus opened 6 of the 7 seals on the scroll that had been in God’s hand. After the 6th seal was broken,

The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places.

No one on earth will call that ‘climate change’. There will be no atheists by that time. Everyone still left on earth will be cowering in terror of God’s judgment.

These judgements— set off when the seals are opened, are an overview. Remember that we will hear the same story from other perspectives. And this is not the only time in this book where there is an interlude between the 6th and 7th item.

 

Check out this episode!

DBRP_349 NAM.1 NAM.2 ISA.52.13-15 ISA.53 REV.6

NAHUM 1-2:
Micah certainly poured out his heart in chapter 7. Micah 7:7-9 matches the verse I highlighted in Isaiah 50:10.

Nahum’s name means ‘compassion’, ‘consolation’, or ‘comfort’. Nothing is known about Nahum except for what we can glean from his book. He must have written between the fall of the Egyptian city of Thebes in 663 B.C. and the fall of the Assyrian city of Nineveh in 612. Nineveh fell to a combined force of Medes, Babylonians, and Scythians.

This book is a vivid prediction of the fall of Nineveh— which is the same city that Jonah preached against 150 years earlier. Assyria was an extremely violent and cruel oppressor.

Rereading ISAIAH 52:13—53:
Note the contrast between verses 8 and 10:

8 NLT Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.
But just two verses later, we read:
10 But it was the LORD’s good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD’s good plan will prosper in his hands.

So we have ‘died’, verse 9, ‘buried like a criminal’, and ‘no descendants’ in 8, and ‘long life’ and ‘many descendants’ in verse 10. Looking back at Jesus, this makes perfect sense. In a similar way, mysteries in Revelation will one day be perfectly clear.

REVELATION 6:
In Revelation 5 we heard that only One was worthy to take the scroll that was in God’s hand. The scroll had seven seals, and it is the first of three big series of seven in this book. Christ is introduced as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But when John sees him, he appears as a lamb that has been slain. (Remember quotes about the Lamb spoken by Isaiah, Micah, and John the Baptist!) The Lamb had seven horns. Horns are used in Scripture to portray kingly power to rule, so with 7, he is the perfect and divine King. And the Lamb had 7 eyes, which again, we are told, stand for the sevenfold Spirit of God. Through the Holy Spirit Christ has perfect eyesight— seeing in all places and in all hearts.

Check out this episode!

DBRP_348 MIC.7 ISA.52.13-15 ISA.53 REV.5

MICAH 7:
The complete quote about the Messiah’s birthplace (Micah 5:2-5) quoted to Herod in Matthew 2:6 mentions Bethlehem, a woman in labor giving birth, and the Lord is pictured as our shepherd who will be ‘highly honored around the world’. Note that Herod would have had cause for concern about his reign if such a leader appeared.

If Micah 6:8 sounded familiar, it is because Micah quoted from Deut. 10:12.

ISAIAH 52:13—53:
In our reading yesterday, Isaiah 52, we heard the passage that Paul quoted in Romans 10.

7 NLT How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger who brings good news,
the good news of peace and salvation,
the news that the God of Israel reigns!
All the ends of the earth will see
the victory of our God.

Note that God gave a special message (in 52:11-12) to those who would carry the temple treasures back to Jerusalem led by Ezra (Ezra 8). Those who carried those ‘sacred objects’ and who prayed and fasted with Ezra beside the river near Babylon had their prayer answered around 200 years before they prayed it!

REVELATION 5:
After acting as Jesus’ secretary to write down the seven letters to the seven churches, John was taken up to God’s throne in heaven. We can note a feature of Jewish custom in the writing of John in Revelation 4: In reverence he avoided saying, “I saw God sitting on his throne.” He went beyond custom and didn’t even say ‘the Lord/Kyrios’. Instead he said, ‘Someone’ or ‘the One sitting on the throne’. God was mentioned directly only in the quotes of the four living creatures and the 24 elders. Note that we have seen the living creatures with four faces before in Ezekiel.

And in front of the throne were seven torches with burning flames. And we are told, “This is the sevenfold Spirit of God.” The number seven has a symbolic meaning— indicating perfection, completeness, or attributes of God. (Compare Rev. 1:5, 3:1, 4:5 and 5:6.) Commentators also say that John could have thought about Isaiah 11:2-5— where Isaiah prophesied about the sevenfold spiritual characteristics of the Branch growing from David’s stump (Jesus).

Check out this episode!

DBRP_347 MIC.5 MIC.6 ISA.52 REV.4

MICAH 5-6:
Remember that Isaiah and Micah were contemporaries. Yesterday we read very familiar sounding verses at the beginning of Micah 4 which start like this:

1 NLT In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house
will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth. …

That was so familiar sounding that I thought the passage must be quoted in the New Testament— but no! There are three verses there in Micah 4 that are almost exactly the same as verses found in Isaiah chapter 2. No wonder they sounded familiar!

Note that God, as he speaks in Micah, frequently jumps from one time to another without warning. He can tell the people, “You will be exiled to Babylon” in one verse, but then very quickly, God says, “Rise and crush the nations, Jerusalem.” We just have to accept that this kind of unannounced time-switching is a feature of prophetic writings.

ISAIAH 52:
The chapter break between Isaiah 50 and 51 breaks up an important connection. For any of us who are “walking in the dark without a ray of light,” (like it says at chapter 50:10), there are encouraging words for you at the beginning of chapter 51.

And our family will remember this verse from a song we used to sing:

11 Those who have been ransomed by the LORD will return.
They will enter Jerusalem singing,
crowned with everlasting joy.
Sorrow and mourning will disappear,
and they will be filled with joy and gladness.

REVELATION 4:
Yesterday we heard the last of the seven letters, the one to Laodicea, the spiritually indifferent church. If we were seeking to interpret the seven letters as seven church ages, we would have no difficulty in saying that that last letter fits us to a tee. Laodicea was a medical center and was known for making an eye salve. So this letter is full of irony that Christ finds them poor, wretched, blind and naked. And note that the Savior doesn’t tell them to fix the problems by their own effort. He tells them to buy the eye salve, white garments, and the gold FROM HIM. What an awesome word is this statement:

“I correct and discipline everyone I love. So be diligent and turn from your indifference.”

Then the famous verse about Christ knocking is not spoken to unbelievers. In its first application, the famous promise is made to the members of the church who are willing to turn from spiritual indifference.

Translation note:
5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. In front of the throne seven lighted torches were burning, which [picture the perfect powers of God’s Spirit//are the seven spirits of God].

Check out this episode!

DBRP_346 MIC.3 MIC.4 ISA.51 REV.3.7-22

MICAH 3-4:
In Micah 1 yesterday we heard one of the sections of Hebrew poetry which is virtually impossible to translate and capture the same impact as the original. Micah— expressing his deep sorrow at God’s coming judgment, concatenated many place names— using them in a compound figure of speech based on the meanings of the names. For instance,

You people in Beth-leaphrah,
roll in the dust to show your despair.

The name Beth-leaphrah means ‘house of dust’.

For those following this plan in the GNT, Micah 1 would be a good place to open the NLT. The NLT footnotes do a good job helping us with the meanings of the names. That holds true until the reader gets to Adullam. No footnote for that one! Say, we’ve heard that name before, haven’t we? Who else hid there?

ISAIAH 51:
If you have time, go back to review Isaiah 50. God showed the thoughts of our Savior in advance of his coming in verses 4-6. Jesus’ resolve (alluded to in Luke 9:51) is shown in verse 7. And verse 9 might have been Paul’s inspiration for the last part of Romans 8! Verse 10 has been an amazing comfort to many with incurable disease or in hopeless situations.

REVELATION 3b:
One of the rewards given to the victorious from Philadelphia is this as NIV translates it:

The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it.

That gives the wrong impression to me. “Oh, no, I don’t want to be made into a pillar and not be able to move!” NLT gives the right idea with neat economy of words like this:

12 All who are victorious will become pillars in the Temple of my God, and they will never _have to_ leave it.

Another part of their reward is this:

And I will write on them the name of my God, and they will be citizens in the city of my God—the new Jerusalem that comes down from heaven from my God. And I will also write on them my new name.

People get very concerned about the mark of the beast in Revelation 13. Observe here something that you will see throughout this book: EVERYONE gets a mark of ownership upon them— including all the saints, and even Jesus has a mark on his forehead.

Translation notes:
7 “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: “[I am the one who is holy and true. My message to you is this://This is the message from the one who is holy and true.] [I have//He has] the key that belonged to David, and when [I open//he opens] a door, no one can close it, and when [I close a door//he closes it], no one can open it.
12 I will make those who are victorious pillars in the temple of my God, and they will never [have to] leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which will come down out of heaven from my God. I will also write on them my new name.
14 “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “[I am the Amen//This is the message from the Amen], the faithful and true witness, who is the origin of all that God has created.

Check out this episode!