Daily Bible Reading Podcast

Greetings everyone and welcome to this last extra podcast this year. Merry Christmas and may you have a very blessed new year.

If you are one who started around January 1 listening to the DBRP and are about to finish the plan on December 31, congratulations to you! I hope you celebrate that achievement! As always, I invite you to come back some year in the future and listen again, but suggest that after a full year with me, it is time to find another Bible reader to listen to in the new year. Don’t forget your own voice. Reading Scripture out loud is tremendously helpful, even if the audience is just you alone.

If you have listened to the NLT this year, for some future year remember that I have also recorded the GNT.

One of my projects during 2022 was to critically listen to the NLT series and fix poor recording quality and mistakes. I re-recorded a few episodes entirely, and made smaller improvements to others. I am continuing to do the same thing now in the GNT series.

For those not on our email list, Gale and I recently shared pictures from my recent trip to Indonesia. If you would like to see that letter and a few extra pictures, please click the link here in the episode notes.

Before January 1st, I will revise the dailybiblereading.info website and the Read This First pages, which contain all my advice about Bible reading and listening to the DBRP. (The link to the Read This First pages is found in the banner of dailybiblerading.info.)

If you have any question you would like me to answer in those pages, please use the Contact button at dailybiblereading.info. I would like to update the information I shared about podcast players. If you have a favorite podcast app that works well for managing your podcast listening, please tell me about it. I will need the app’s name, what platform it runs on, and why you recommend it.

In my October extra podcast, I gave the second lesson in the series I call Buckling the Belt of Truth. That lesson gives my advice about how to understand spiritual realities found in the Bible, which are spiritual things about you that cannot be seen with human eyes. In particular, I dealt with the biblical teaching that you have been united with Christ in his death (being crucified with Him), you died and were buried, and now have been raised with Him to new life. Since you and I never actually experienced death, the Holy Spirit has been so kind as to give us multiple metaphors to help us grasp the reality of our spiritual resurrection.

I think a key to grasping this concept is understanding our being one with Christ. At first I thought of giving you an allegorical treasure map, to walk you through the different ways Scripture repeats the same powerful idea. But in the end I had to recognize that I don’t have the literary gifts of John Bunyan. (But don’t miss reading his book, Pilgrim’s Progress.)

I started that Buckling the Belt series by saying how I struggled to find the promises that Peter mentioned in 2nd Peter 1, the promises needed for ‘living a godly life’, the ones “that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.” I am thinking now that not all God’s promises need to be expressed in the future with statements like, “He who started a good work in you WILL …” (I’m referring there to a beautiful promise found in Phl. 1:6.) Promises can also be stated in the present, such as when Jesus utters 7-8 ‘I am’ statements in John, and when He proclaims ‘you are’.

One of those ‘I am’ statements is found in John 15, where Jesus said,

“I am the true grapevine, and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.”

The statement, “I am the vine; you are the branches,” is actually a promise. It is a right-now promise. It is true of you now. But like many promises, there are conditions to fulfill. Some of the conditions are stated with the word ‘will’, like we expect for promises:

• Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
• Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit.

As a Bible translator, I don’t like the way our being united to Christ is expressed with the word ‘in’, as in “Remain in me, and I will remain in you.” Greek talked like that. But we English speakers don’t normally talk of branches ‘remaining in’ a tree. Instead, branches are simply part of the tree. I would translate “Remain in me,” as “Stay joined as one with me.” We are organically one with our Vine, Jesus.

There is a constellation of ‘treasures’ found in staying joined to Jesus which He explains in John 15:

• 9 “I have loved you as the Father has loved me.” Then later he commands us to love one another.
• 13-15 This is the passage where Jesus calls us his ‘friends’.
• 16 Then Jesus tells us, “I chose you.” Those three are on my list of the things that most Christians find hard to believe.
• 11 “I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my Joy.” What a wonderful promise!
• 7-8 Let me give you my paraphrase: Jesus is saying,

 “If you continue clinging to Me in oneness, and if you internalize my teachings, then I invite you to pray asking for anything you want, and it will be given to you.

8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”

This is another amazing promise: Answered prayers! Wow, how come we aren’t spending more time in prayer!

 

Let’s keep on clinging to Christ. Meditate on being Jesus’ branch. Ask God to help you internalize this new identity. Because then you will be able to reach out and touch God’s other promises, like the harder one I mentioned: Being crucified with Christ and raised with Him.

There is one more crowning jem of oneness with Christ in Ephesians that I didn’t mention in the last episode. Since we are joined as one with Christ Jesus, we ‘are seated with Him in the heavenly realms’ (Eph. 2:6). That verse doesn’t say that we ‘have a future position with Christ’, although promises to that effect are found elsewhere in the Bible. Instead Eph. 2:6 says we ‘are seated’ with Him right now. Where is Christ seated? At God’s right hand. (If you were standing directly in front of God, Jesus would be to your left.) The verse is a bit unclear as to how we could be seated with Christ. We might be seated circling God’s throne. I like to say, “There are no folding chairs in heaven.” None of heaven’s chairs are made of plastic. Your name is engraved at your place. There is a place reserved for you alone, and it is certain and permanent.

But capitalizing on the picture of vine-and-branch oneness with Christ, let’s imagine sitting on Jesus’ lap, while He is sitting on his throne next to God. You are right there with the King of the Universe. Lean back and whisper in his ear!

“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask.

Keep on seeking, and you will find.

Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.” Mat. 7:7

John 15:7 “If you remain joined to me and my words remain in you,

you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted.”

Think of it: Jesus actually is inviting you to take advantage of your close position!

From this place of acceptance and privilege, you are invited to tell the King what You need Him to do for you. But when you sit there, filled with reverence and awe, you will suddenly realize that some things you thought about asking Him are not really what is needed or important. However when the Holy Spirit helps you find your voice to ask, the things you wind up asking will be ‘for His glory’ (that is to say, ‘in his name’). Such prayers are powerful!

Then our passage promised ‘you will be filled with joy.’ Why will we receive such joy? Because we will ask big things of God, and He will grant our requests, and God will be glorified. First of all, He will be glorified because we will sing his praises more thankfully.

This is where I am right now. I am working to understand and internalize all that I just shared, because I am asking God to do some amazingly big things.

 

Messages from my Think Cabinet:
Our church remodeled the worship center a few years ago. A heavy black metal audio cabinet, six feet tall containing a big rack of amplifiers was left abandoned. Eventually I asked if I might take all the outdated stuff from that cabinet and use it for something in my office. I didn’t have a clear idea of what I would do with it. I have enjoyed it mainly as my Idea Incubation Box. It has light of seven colors seeping out of the cracks from the string of LED lights I installed. For a little more than a year I have been posting Bible verses inside the box that grabbed my attention. I’m going to share those verses with you now. (The verse references are given in the episode notes.)

 

Quote from Dr. Bob Utley, Introduction to Habakkuk:

“It is acceptable to question God.

However, often it is God’s presence,

not rational answers, that satisfy

(as in Job’s case).”

 

 

(This note is posted folded and very low. You have to kneel to open it and read it.)

“Whenever you pray,

go into your room, close the door

and pray to your Father

in secret.”  Matt. 6:6

 

The LORD is near

to all who cry out to Him

to all who cry out to Him sincerely.  Ps. 145:18

 

 

Keep on praying with the help of the Holy Spirit.

Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. (Two translations of Jude 20)

 

Entrust your efforts to the LORD, and your plans will succeed. Prov. 16:3

 

A heart that turns from God

becomes bored with its own ways.

But a good person is satisfied with God’s ways. Prov. 14:14

 

 

This is how our translation of Eccl. 12:11 sounds when translated into English:

The teaching of a wise advisor is like a shepherd’s stick

that is used to guide and direct his sheep.

May every saying given by this

advisor and shepherd

be nailed

into the mind of every learner

and guide them in living rightly. Eccl. 12:11 PET

 

 

Without [fully believing//faith] it is impossible

to please God,

for the one who approaches Him must believe

that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Heb. 11:6

 

 

Through suffering

our bodies continue to share

in the death of Jesus

so that the LIFE of Jesus

may also be seen in our bodies. 2Cor. 4:10

 

You love Him

even though you’ve never seen Him.

And even though you don’t see Him,

you believe in Him,

and celebrate with glorified joy

that goes beyond anything words can say,

since you are receiving

the proper goal of your faith,

namely, the rescue of your souls.  1Pet. 1:8-9

 

 

The people of an evil and unfaithful era look for a miraculous sign. Mat. 12:39

 

Which of you

wanting to build a tower

doesn’t sit down first

and compute the cost?  Luke 14:28

 

 

Remember Uzziah:

When he became powerful his pride destroyed him.  2Chr. 26:16

 

 

Do not envy sinners

in your heart.

Instead continue to fear the Lord.

There is indeed a future for you,

and your hope will not be crushed.  Prov. 23:17-18

 

One dead fly

can make a whole bottle of perfume stink.

Even so, a little foolishness

can outweigh great wisdom and honor.  Ecc. 10:1

 

 

Instead, clothe yourself with the presence

of the Lord Christ Jesus.

And don’t think about ways to indulge your evil desires.  Romans 13:14

 

 

If you,

though you are sinful,

know how to give good gifts to your children,

just think

how much more your Father in heaven

will give good gifts to those who ask Him.  Mat. 7:11

 

 

The LORD of armies has planned it.

Who can stop it?

He is ready to use his power.

Who can turn it back?  Is. 14:27

 

 

It is God

who enables us, along with you,

to stand firm for Christ.

He has commissioned us,

and he has identified us

as his own by placing

the Holy Spirit

in our hearts

as the first installment that guarantees

everything

he has promised us.  2Cor. 1:21-22

 

This note is my comment based on Weymouth’s translation of 2Cor. 5:14.

“His death was my death.”

 

 

Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge

can have great

confidence

as we hold to the hope that lies before us.

This hope is a

strong and trustworthy

anchor for our souls.

It leads us through

the curtain

into God’s inner sanctuary. Heb. 6:18b-19

 

There is a 8 year old boy who visits my office weekly and asks if I have put up a new note. I had to put up a special note inside the box telling how to get out of the box if you shut yourself in.

 

My sister or brother, have a wonderful time celebrating our Savior’s birth.
Gale and I send you our love and together say
May the Lord bless you ‘real good’.

Phil & Gale

A few years ago I published a YouVersion reading plan entitled Buckling the belt of truth. In this podcast I’m reissuing the first episode of that reading plan.

Here I am at 72. I'm beginning to not be so surprised at my own age. Being so very elderly, perhaps it is time to share some grandfatherly advice.

Maybe I have some of you fooled. Some of you may think that an elder missionary like me has it all together and that I don't ever sin. You might think that I have conquered all weaknesses and no longer have episodes of sinful thoughts. You would be wrong. And I suspect that I don’t fool everyone. People who really know me have seen my weaknesses.

However, if I am working with the right information, a lot of you have struggles with sin the same way I do. So let me start by calling our attention again to these frequently quoted verses:

2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT'15

3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

2 Peter 1:3-4 ESV:

3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Those are great verses, but they leave me asking, even crying out, “Which promises?! I don't think I have “escaped the world's corruption” yet! Have I been overlooking a key promise somewhere?!”

Peter follows verses 3-4 by urging his readers to take steps for spiritual maturity found in verses 5-8. While Peter gives great advice in those verses (which I hope you will study), I still keep coming back to verses 3-4 and asking, “How do I put golden promises found somewhere in the Bible into effect?— so that through them, I can ‘share in God’s divine nature’ and truly ‘escape’ from bondage to sinful desires. What are the practical steps to do that?” Where can I find the promises that unlock moral excellence and self-control?

Just like any college curriculum, before you start advanced courses, you need to take the prerequisites. So also, for you to get the most from this study, here are the prerequisites.

• This study is for true believers in Christ who are mature enough in following Jesus to have experienced the frustration I just explained above.
• The 5-7 studies I am starting with this session won’t be much help to you if you are living in gross disobedience to basic commands in God’s Word. Using an extreme example, if you make your living by stealing packages, you need to get an honest job before taking this course. This course is for those seeking spiritual maturity. The first step in becoming a maturing follower of Jesus is for you to repent of all openly disobedient life-styles.
• Another foundational step toward maturity is being a member of a local Bible-believing church, being baptized, and taking part in the Lord’s supper with your fellow believers. I can imagine some readers complaining about my saying this. I urge you to understand that membership in an organized fellowship of believers is a baked-in part of how God designed humans to live. The picture of community life starts in Genesis and goes through the whole Bible. You will not be successful in your quest for spiritual maturity if you are attempting to live as a Lone Ranger Christian. Other readers will say, “I don’t want to be a lone ranger, but there isn’t a Bible believing church near me.” I recognize that finding a church that is faithfully teaching the Bible will become increasingly difficult at this time— especially in some countries, but also anywhere in the increasingly post-Christian world. Look for a home fellowship that you can join.
• Finally, an important foundational prerequisite step is to cultivate a scheduled Bible reading habit.

If you fit this profile, please continue to listen/read.

1. My first step to finding the golden promises Peter mentioned and escaping moral corruption is to Put on the belt of truth. This is one of seven parts to the Christian’s armor found in Ephesians 6. But I suggest that we make this clarification: Buckle the belt of truth by believing what God says about you in the Bible.

NLT'07 Ephesians 6:14:

14 Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth …

If you are a Christian, you believe a lot of true things already about Christ and the Bible. (You believe Christ came to earth to save us. You believe the Bible is God’s message to us.) But do you reject believing other things the Bible says about you? If you do, it is like putting on a belt— putting it through your belt loops, but not buckling it. So let’s learn how to buckle the belt of truth.

In this lesson, I want to sensitize you to realize when you don’t actually believe it when the Bible says incredibly awesome things about YOU as a believer in Christ.

Having the realization is often the hardest part. After that, ask God to renew your mind to fully accept the new truth.

Let’s make one thing clear about believing. Believing isn’t something that just sort of happens. Believing is an act of the will. You decide if you believe something or believe in Somebody, or not. This is why in Scripture we read that God commanded people to believe and do what He told them, and He punished them for a stubborn refusal to believe His commands.

Just look at the people of Israel who followed Moses all the way from Egypt and through the wilderness. They got all the way to the border of the promised land, knowing all the time what they would have to do. But when the Lord, “Now it’s time to enter and conquer that land,” they said, “Surely you couldn’t mean us!”

Let’s go back to where we started. Peter said, “he (God) has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Here’s the basic principle I hope you will learn: When you encounter ‘great and precious promises’ in your Bible reading, telling you about wonderful things God has done for you or given to you, ask God to make those things real to you. Ask him to open your mind to receive that truth about you, and help you live in the light of that truth. You will need to pray asking God for such help, because for your whole life, Satan and his friends have been feeding lies to you.

==============

Now let’s turn to Ephesians 1. You might want to follow the episode notes so that you can see the words I have highlighted.

NLT'15 Ephesians 1:1-23:

1 This letter is from Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing to God’s holy people in Ephesus, who are faithful followers of Christ Jesus.

2 May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

This letter written to the normal believers in Ephesus, is therefore written to us too. For now let’s skip the idea that Paul called them ‘holy people’, because Paul comes back to that idea more than once below.

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. 4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. 7 He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins. 8 He has showered his kindness on us, along with all wisdom and understanding.

This paragraph turns our normal understanding upside down. I think that most people think of God as the angry judge that will destroy us. But these verses have God as the actor doing all these wonderful things, which are too many for me to comment on now. Let me highlight just two of them: God loves us and called us in advance. Change what you think about God and yourself: Tell this truth to yourself: God loves even me. God called me long ago, before I was born (amazingly, before He made the world).

Let’s claim another truth here: As a believer in Christ, you are united with Christ. A literal translation will say, ‘in Christ’. Jesus spoke of this unity when He said, “I am the vine and you are the branches.” (John 15:5)

NLT'07 John 15:4:

4 Remain in me (joined to me), and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

This idea of being ‘joined’ to Christ (or ‘in Christ) is spoken of in many places in Paul’s writing, and it becomes one of the themes of this letter. But, dear friend, it’s time for you to start believing this idea about yourself! This is a key concept in believing that you are accepted as ‘holy’ in God’s sight. If you see yourself as separate from Christ, sadly, you will act like you are not connected to Christ.

Now with this connection, we also have the reason we are holy. It’s not that we are in any natural sense ‘saints’, but we have been made holy by Christ. We have received his holiness.

Out of the incredible richness of this paragraph, I want to pull out one more gem. God has adopted you and me into his family. In the Greek Paul used a legal term here which means you have been given ‘sonship’ or ‘legally adopted as a son’. In Roman law, the adoption of a son could not be undone. It was permanent. (Ladies, in this spiritual reality, don’t let the male gender of this term rob you from considering yourself permanently adopted.) Dear friend, it's time to revise how you think of yourself. You’re not a nobody. You’re not unloved. You are a permanent member of the most powerful royal family!

Let’s skip down to the middle of v.13.

9 God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ— which is to fulfill his own good plan. 10 And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ— everything in heaven and on earth. 11 Furthermore, because we are united with Christ, we have received an inheritance from God, for he chose us in advance, and he makes everything work out according to his plan.

12 God’s purpose was that we Jews who were the first to trust in Christ would bring praise and glory to God. 13 And now you Gentiles have also heard the truth, the Good News that God saves you. And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.

Think about this: God has given you a guarantee that he is going to give you a wonderful inheritance. Stop saying, “Well, as long as I get to heaven I don’t need an inheritance.” God wants us to think about that inheritance. It is healthy for us to think longingly for our inheritance in heaven.

Our guarantee is not some flimsy card that we will misplace. Our guarantee is the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts! Our text says, “when you believed in Christ, he (God) identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit,”

It is crucial that you have a sense of belonging to God given by the Holy Spirit. Think of how personal and intimate is this bond we now have with God. I think you will find that this intimate bond is something you want to keep. This is one of our main motivations in seeking to live a holy life in God’s sight.

NLT'07 Romans 8:9:

9 … (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

It’s no wonder that in the John 15 passage we quoted about Jesus being the vine and we the branches, He mentions prayer:

NLT'07 John 15:7:

7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted!

If we aren’t praying, then we aren’t believing the truths I just listed for you.

15 Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, 16 I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18 I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called— his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

19 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power 20 that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. 21 Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else— not only in this world but also in the world to come. 22 God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. 23 And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.

Power points:

• God is for us and loves us. God is the actor for most of this chapter. This love from God the Father is counter-intuitive for us. We won’t believe it unless we realize our lack of belief and pray to God asking Him to make it real to us.
• God went to great lengths to put his plan into action. This gives us great confidence that we have really been called by Him. We are one with Him, joined to Him.
• We are united to Christ, so much so that He considers us actually part of his body.
• We have a powerful guarantee, the Holy Spirit, which is not an external thing, but an inward witness that we are joined to Christ.
• We are God’s holy people, not because we have the power to be holy. But God has made us holy by our unity with Christ. This is our identity! Take this identity. Believe and preserve this identity by taking care of the unity you have with the Holy Spirit.
• Paul wants us to understand all these things so that we understand that God will use his power to help us.

 

Homework:

2PE.1.3-4 EPH.6.10-18 EPH.1 EPH.2.1-10

 

=====================

Actual YouVersion reading plan text:

THEME: Buckle the belt of truth by fully believing WHAT GOD SAYS ABOUT YOU.

Verses like 2 Peter 1:3-4 often left me asking questions:

Which promises? I don't think I have ‘escaped the world's corruption’ yet! Have I been overlooking the key promise somewhere?! How do I put the promises into effect? How can be a ‘partaker of the divine nature and escape’ …’?

The verses that I am sharing in this reading plan are the best answers I have found to those questions. The verses in these readings include the Biblical term ‘flesh’— which might be translated in your Bible as ‘sinful desires’, or ‘sinful human nature’. The ‘flesh’ is basically the evil and selfish desires that spring from our bodies. We are all different in our ‘fleshly’ weaknesses, but the Bible holds the keys to victory for everyone.

First of all, it is important to remove a common excuse for sin. In Romans 7:24 Paul exclaims, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Paul is NOT negating what he says in chapter 6 and 8 by that desperate cry. (The second half of chapter 7 is Paul’s explanation of 7:5-6.) The burden of the whole passage is that we are to no longer to live as slaves of sin (6:6, 8:2).

Let’s take a look at all the spiritual armor that God gives us in Ephesians 6:10-18. I want to focus on the ‘belt of truth (6:14). But I want to first draw an analogy with the ‘helmet of ‘salvation’ (6:17). If you BELIEVE you have been SAVED, you are wearing the helmet of SALVATION!

In a similar way, to buckle on the ‘belt of truth’ (6:14), BELIEVE what God says ABOUT YOU. There is lots of correct doctrine that you can believe— and that is all part of the belt of truth, but if you are preparing for spiritual war against wicked spiritual forces, you haven’t actually buckled the belt around your waist until you BELIEVE what God’s Word says about YOURSELF!

For practice, read Ephesians 1:1-2:10, asking God in prayer to help you believe what these verses say about you as a believer in Christ. Claim everything Paul says about ‘you’, ‘we’, or ‘us’ in these verses. Clothe yourself with the amazing truths about YOU/US found in this passage.

Hi there, and welcome to this bonus podcast for day 115. I will be discussing the two main types of Bible translations I recommend for most people. As a Bible translator since 1983, I feel that most Christians in the USA are not given enough information about why Bible translations differ in wording, and which kinds of Bible translations will be better for different kinds of readers. This is an important topic, so I am surprised at myself: I can’t believe that I haven’t released a dedicated podcast about this topic every year since 2014. ALSO, please stay tuned for the end of the podcast, because I want to recommend a fantastic new real-book Bible.

Because of more difficult content in this podcast, if you are not driving a car, it would be a great idea to open the episode notes so you can visually follow along and make sure you don’t miss something important. Look especially at the words I have made bold.

There are actually five types of Bible translations, but I will mainly discuss the two most-used types in this podcast. But let’s start with showing the two types with a translation example that is not from the Bible.

Consider this sentence:

Jill looked like a deer caught in the headlights when she heard Jack’s proposal.

Now let’s imagine a word-for-word translation for some language in Africa. Since we don’t know a language like that, let’s pretend we do and make a word-for-word translation into English. Here is my suggestion for that:

Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light upon hearing Jack’s desire.

What we have in this example (caught in the headlights) is a figure of speech. Americans rather frequently use this figure of speech. But a word-for-word translation for the hypothetical African audience would very likely be tricky for them to understand. They might not know what a gazelle would do if a bright light shone upon them. (For that matter, I don’t know if gazelle’s act like deer do when meeting with bright lights.) I think an African might understand “Jill appeared like a gazelle trapped in bright light” to be a gazelle trapped with a metal trap, in pain, and struggling to get loose when the bright light suddenly shines upon it. Our hypothetical African listener will probably get a very different idea about what is meant.

For our second hypothetical translation, let’s try giving the plain meaning like we would if we were explaining to an 8-year-old child. We might translate, “Jill was stunned by Jack’s proposal.” Or we might say, Jill was caught off guard and totally surprised by Jack’s offer.” In this example, I’ve dropped the figure of speech entirely and gone straight for the meaning.

These are the two main translation types that I want to explain: The first was what we call a literal translation, or a word-for-word translation. And the second is what I will call a meaning-based translation.

Literal: Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light …

Meaning-based: Jill was stunned by Jack’s proposal.

Which translation is ‘right’? Actually both translations can be considered right. But the word-for-word translation is difficult to understand for our hypothetical African listeners, because there are cultural factors involved in interpreting the figure of speech in this example. The listeners would likely come up with various interpretations about the poor, defenseless gazelle being trapped. Whereas, if Jill likes Jack, she may be thrilled at his proposal.

The meaning based translation is right too: “Jill was stunned by Jack’s proposal.” That translation is easy to understand, but if you remember the original sentence, you will miss the richness of the figure of speech.

The two main types of Bible translations have exactly the same problems as what I have shown in the two examples above.

The advantage of a literal, word-for-word translation is that it mirrors the form of the original text.

The disadvantage of a literal translation is that it cannot always clearly give the meaning in the target language.

The meaning-based translation is just the opposite:

The advantage of a meaning-based translation is that it shows the meaning clearly.

The disadvantage of a meaning-based translation is that it cannot mirror the form of the original text.

Every Bible translator starts out thinking, “I will be able to translate word-for-word and still clearly enough show the meaning.” For two languages that are strongly related to each other, a literal translation can often still be clear. But if we are thinking of translating ancient Hebrew and Greek into modern English, there is a huge gulf between the ancient and modern languages and cultures.

My first example involved an English figure of speech. But let me give you a chance to experience decoding an Indonesian figure of speech:

Yakobus adalah kacang yang sudah lupa kulitnya.

A word-for-word translation is this: Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.

Now it is your turn to wonder what that could mean. You won’t guess, so I will tell you.

Here’s a meaning-based translation of “Jack is a peanut that has forgotten his shell.”

That means, Jack left his rural village to get an education in the city, and now has a good job with a high salary, but he has forgotten his humble beginnings. He never helps any of his friends and relatives in his home village.

There are many literal (or word-for-word) Bible translations in English. That kind of translation is easier to make. And not all literal translations are equally literal. Some fudge to be slightly more meaning-based. But for the purposes of this discussion, I will choose what I think is the most popular literal translation today: It is the ESV (English Standard Version). It is the translation that would translate, “Jill appeared like a trapped gazelle in bright light.” It is great at showing the word-for-word form of the original text, but not so good at giving you the meaning clearly. A literal translation I like better than the ESV is the WEBBE (World English Bible British Edition).

Meaning-based Bible translations are much rarer, because they require the translator to work much harder to accurately translate the meaning. For English language readers, I recommend the Weymouth New Testament in Modern Speech of 1901, The Good News Bible (TEV 1966), and the New Living Translation. There are a few more, but those are my favorites, and I will focus in this podcast on the NLT. The NLT would translate our example as “Jill was stunned by Jack’s proposal.”

The KJV is a literal translation, and an unfortunate part of the continuing legacy of the KJV, is that pastors often prefer using literal translations from the pulpit. But unfortunately this means that many ordinary people in the pew wind up using something like the ESV for their daily Bible reading at home. This means that many Christians who read their Bibles at home often struggle with hard-to-understand passages. If you normally read the ESV Bible and think you understand everything in it, well, I bet you haven’t yet read all of it!

Here is one of my most important recommendations for you: Make sure you have access to both kinds of translations. In other words, use both an ESV and an NLT Bible. That way you can quickly see the meaning (in the NLT), and you get a window into the word-for-word shape of the original text with the ESV.

My Daily Bible Reading podcasts have only been of two meaning-based translations. Why? Because they can be understood by people just listening to the recordings. It would be useless to record the ESV, because listeners would often miss the meaning.

Now I want to illustrate what I have been saying with a Bible passage. I wish I could spend an hour doing this, but I feel I must limit myself to only one example. I have chosen the topic statement for the book of Romans, chapter 1, verses 16-17. In the ESV verse 16 says,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

If I had all the podcast listeners in front of me as a group, I would say to you, “Raise your hand if you are a Jew.” Usually in my audiences, no one raises their hand. At that point I say, “Raise your hand if you are a Greek.” Usually again, no one raises their hand. But then my question is, “Where do you fit in to Romans 1:16?” This verse says that the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Sounds like you people who didn’t raise your hands are not able to be saved! So which one are we?” The answer is that Paul is contrasting Jews with everyone else. Greek was the universal language of culture and commerce at that time, even under the Roman government. Now let’s compare the same verse in the NLT:

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes— the Jew first and also the Gentile.

Now let’s look at verse 17 in the ESV:

For in it (referring back to the Gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

No English reader will suspect that there is anything kind of strange about the phrase ‘the righteous of God’. The problem is that ‘of God’ is a genitive in Greek, and genitives have a dozen different options for the meaning. ESV nearly always uses the word ‘of’ to translate genitives. But in this verse, ‘righteousness of God’ will mean that the Gospel is about revealing that God is righteous. Wait a minute! If God is righteous and I am not righteous, that is not Good News. He will punish me. Rather, in this verse, the genitive is one showing source. Just wait a moment and I will read the NLT.

A second significant problem in verse 17 is a grammatical construction that forms an idiom in Greek: For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So the literal translation has zero meaning or leaves the reader to guess at meanings, which will probably be wrong.

Finally, because of the first two problems I just mentioned, it seems like the final quote from Habakkuk 2:4 doesn’t fit with what came before it. So we ask, why did Paul quote, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Now let me read the NLT to you:

17 This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Many years ago, I had a phone conversation with a woman who was a new believer. She liked reading her KJV, and I used Romans 1:16-17 to try to show her that she would be better off reading the NLT. The KJV has the same problem in v.17: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith.” So I asked her what that means, and she quickly replied, “Oh, you know, the Catholic faith, the Mormon faith, the protestant faith.” Hello! None of those things existed when Paul wrote Romans. I give that story to show that a dangerous thing that happens when many people read the Bible: If we don’t understand something, we may just make up a meaning that sounds plausible to us. And as time goes on, we can get more and more convinced that our guesses are true.

Going back to the advantages and disadvantages of the two translation types, the ESV has made a very good literal translation of 1:17. The ESV closely mirrors the form of the Greek text, but the problem is that readers won’t grasp the meaning, unless perhaps there are study notes to guide them. On the other hand, the NLT has the disadvantage that it doesn’t match the word-for-word form of the Greek, but it nails the meaning. God is the source of our righteousness. NLT translates: This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. And the Greek idiom ‘from faith to faith’ means, “This is accomplished from start to finish by faith.” Finally, if you take the time to read verse 17 again, you will see that the quote at the end of the verse supports what Paul claims about the Good News about Christ.

I am passionate about people having access to at least one Bible that is a literal translation, and one that is a meaning-based translation.

Recently an elder in our church shared that he was struggling hard to read and understand Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. He was rather bitter in his complaints, saying, “Why did Jeremiah write like this? I can’t penetrate this stuff!” This is just one example of many I could share. Normal Christians like you and me who try to use a literal translation for devotional reading, and attempt to read every book in the Bible, will not enjoy the experience. This can clearly be seen in Indonesia, where the people have only had wide access to one literal translation since 1974. Indonesian Christians have been discouraged from reading their Bibles for too long, and that has seriously weakened the church throughout that country. Now, with our Plain Indonesian Translation, thousands of people have discovered that they enjoy reading the Bible. But now, through our 90-day Bible reading challenge, teenage kids and adults are rejoicing to find that they enjoy reading the New Testament, finishing it in 90 days, and many immediately start over to read it again.

Any Christian who wants to glorify God should read the whole Bible. And if we really want to glorify God, then we should read a translation that we understand. Reading a translation that you don’t understand fully will not help you or encourage you.

I need to give two important clarifications: Some people think that the NLT is a paraphrase because the first edition still contained some words or phrases that sounded like the Living Bible. The Living Bible deserves to be called a paraphrase, because it occasionally adds ideas not found in the original text, or fails to translate other things. But the New Living Translation is a highly researched and revised meaning-based translation. My second clarification is that The Message is an extreme paraphrase. Please don’t think it is a faithful translation. Please don’t quote it. Please don’t give it to a new Christian to read.

Here is the information about real-book Bibles I mentioned at the beginning of the podcast. I want you to know that no one at Tyndale House asked me to promote their products, and I am not getting paid anything for giving out this information.

Gale decided to give NLT Bibles to members of her Bible study groups, and I decided to give them to my small group. It has been a long time since we bought Bibles, and so we made some delightful discoveries. Tyndale House has several cool NLT Bibles right now. The NLT Illustrated Study Bible is incredible! Beautifully illustrated with maps and charts and many study notes and supplemental information. The hardcover edition is only $36.66. You might like the leather-like edition which is a bit more. However, at more than 2,500 pages, you won’t want to carry this Bible around.

Here’s what I am giving to some young people in our church, including our grandkids: There is a new kind of Bible developed by Tyndale House, called a Filament Enabled NLT Bible. This real-book Bible comes without study notes and maps, making it practical to carry and providing an uncluttered reading experience, but it has a companion cell phone app that gives you all the stuff you would get in a study Bible and even much more. You download the Filament app for your phone or tablet, and then you can take a picture of the page number or type in the page number for which you want to get more information. The app then gives you study notes, charts, timelines, and devotional material, including videos and even worship songs. There is a premium-value edition with a leather-like cover for just $15. For the person who wants to make notes, there is a beautiful wide margin edition available for $38. A large print Filament enabled Bible is about that same price. A genuine leather thin-line edition of the NLT Filament Bible is only $35.

I highly recommend an article linked at the very end of the episode notes entitled How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best by Andy Naselli.

And may the Lord bless you ‘real good’.

LINKS:

https://sites.google.com/clarinetpages.net/read-the-bible-in-a-year/read/start-with-a-good-plan

See the second part of this page: Recommended Bible translations for devotional reading

Blog post:

https://dailybiblereading.libsyn.com/website/more-about-bible-translations

Fantastic article: How Not to Argue About Which Bible Translation Is Best

June 13, 2017 | Andy Naselli

After being directly involved in Bible translation since 1983, I have wanted to share with younger generations about the things I have learned from my experiences as a Bible translator— the things that made the most impact on me through my years. I have now decided to put a few of my most important stories in this JoySightings podcast. I know that I am never going to write a book. But now if anyone ever asks about my experiences, I will have a place to send them: Go to JoySightings.info and start at episode 52. I hope to add several other stories this year. Today I will also read one more parable of Safed the Sage.

When we were about 7-8 years into the Orya translation project, back around 1991, Nahe asked one Sunday morning to have a private conversation with me. Nahe and I had never had much communication, so I felt it was an unusual request. I knew him mainly as a young guy who made his income by cutting trees into lumber with his chainsaw. He was strong and athletic, but a man of few words.

He came that evening and we sat down together in my candle-lit rustic cabin's front room. He said, "You wouldn't have heard this, because it happened in another village. I got very sick and died. When I came back to life, the men were already building my coffin. But while I was dead, I went to heaven and saw wonderful things. The people in heaven are so happy and rejoicing."

He ended his story with tears in his eyes saying this, "I cry every single day because I know that someone like me can't go to heaven. What do I have to do to be saved?"

I thought, "Oh boy! A chance to be a real missionary! This will make a good prayer letter." (But I was in for a surprise!) I immediately answered his question from the book of Acts chapter 16, "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31)

Nahe answered, "That's just it! How can I tell if I have believed?"

I responded incredulously, "Can't you tell if you've believed something?"

And he said, "We Orya people don't think so."

That's how the conversation went according to my understanding of it in those moments. But what we said really meant this:

I answered wrongly from the book of Acts, "Have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."

Nahe's answer made sense, "That's just it! How can I tell if I have faith?"

I responded incredulously, "Can't you tell if you have faith?"

And he said, "We Orya people don't think so."

The difference is between 'believe' and 'faith'. It took a little while in the conversation before I figured out what Nahe was saying. This was a heavy moment for me, because I realized that the word for 'believe' that we had used in all our translation work for six years was wrong, including verses in Scripture booklets we had carefully checked and distributed.

Long before we arrived in Guay, the word that the Orya people used to translate 'faith' was ei gwen, or to have 'inner fruit'. By 'inner fruit' the Orya meant the inside part that you eat when you take off the skin. It's the inside of the papaya or watermelon. The situation might be compared to buying a papaya at the market. You don't know whether the inside is red or yellow until you take it home and cut it open.

Nahe told me that the Orya people assumed that you couldn't know if you had this inner fruit (or faith) inside you until you died. They thought that at the door of heaven, God would somehow do an operation to reveal if you had any of the right stuff inside you.

It was clear that if we used 'have inner fruit' to translate 'believe', then no Orya person could tell if they had done the required action to be saved. No one could have assurance of salvation! After that Sunday evening conversation with Nahe, all day Monday Boas and I and several others worked to make sure we found exactly the right word for 'believe' in Orya. The word for believe in Orya is not ei gwen, but taïblïblan.

There is a weird twist that has happened with the words for faith and believe in several languages that is not like the Greek words pisteuo and pistis. The Greek words have the same root, so they sound alike.

Greek English Indonesian Orya verb pisteuo I believe Saya percaya taïblïblan noun pistis faith iman ei gwen visually clearly related dissimilar dissimilar dissimilar

If only pisteuo (I believe) and pistis/pisteos (noun/possesive noun) were translated into English with similar looking words like 'I'm confident' and 'confidence', we wouldn't have so many false teachings being spread around! But because 'believe' and 'faith' share no visible or audible root relationship, the English noun faith has been allowed to wander— so to speak. The cohesion between pisteuo and pistis that was obvious for the original readers in Grrek has been lost in translation. Perhaps because of the influence of the KJV on Indonesian translations, the same thing has happened in Indonesian. The result is that the Indonesian word iman (like 'faith' in English) is used for all sorts of things, including inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, and a force for good luck.

Notice what happens in verses like Ephesians 2:8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith. …" If you want to be saved, it would be a good idea to understand 'faith'. But so many people who ask Nahe's question, "How can I tell if I have faith," will get all sorts of misleading answers.

Dear friend, anytime you want to understand what 'faith' means in a verse in the New Testament, just remember that you can substitute the word 'believe', 'believed', or 'believing' (whatever form fits) in place of the word 'faith'. NLT translates Ephesians 2:8 as "God saved you by his grace when you believed. …" If you substitute the word 'believe' for 'faith' in translations that use that word, you will probably find that you want to add an object. You can choose an object from the context such as these: 'believe in Christ', 'believe in the gospel', 'believe true teachings', or 'believe God's promises'.

Now you know why in the Daily Bible Reading podcasts that I always substitute the word 'believe' or 'fully believing' for 'faith' in the NLT or GNT. It all stems from my conversation with Nahe. You see, I want people to know how to be saved.

Note that believing is a volitional act. We decide to believe, and we better hope our decisions are based on good logic and evidence. That is what makes it so different from the word 'faith'. People believe that 'faith' just sort of happens. False teachers make money by promoting all sorts of things that they claim will increase your faith. But remember that in Greek, faith is the noun form for the verb believe. So if God gives you clear evidence of his power and love for you, like He did when he led the people of Israel out of Egypt, and then you refuse to believe in his good will for you, that is called stubborn disobedience. Believing is a volitional act. Deciding to believe what God says equals increasing your faith.

I wish I could tell you that Nahe followed through with my advice to fully believe in Jesus. Nahe's widow goes to close friend Boas' church, and I happened to meet her in his village two years ago. We both feel that Nahe never believed in Jesus to the point that it changed his life. But, interestingly, on that same visit to Boas' village, two old friends there told me stories of their dying, going to heaven, and being told to return to this world. (If you ever experienced malaria, you would know how easy it would be to nearly die!) I am encouraged that both of my two old friends show signs of true new life in Christ.

Friends, I want everyone to get a clear answer to the question, "How can I be sure I am saved?" I want you to not get confused by the fuzzy word 'faith'. Remember, faith is fully believing what the Bible says. Every time you read God's Word and decide that you believe what you find there, you have increased your faith.

Today I would like to give pointers for understanding Jesus' parables. I consider the parable to be one of the greatest of all teaching devices, and a legacy of the Greatest Teacher. I will end this episode by sharing about one of my favorite writers of non-Biblical parables.

One little detail to understand is that the word 'parable' (Greek paraboles) had a wider meaning than we normally think of in English, and you may see this sometimes in the New Testament. In English, we normally think of a parable as a story that points to some deeper meaning. However, as an example, the word 'parable' is used for a one-sentence figurative teaching in Mark 7:17 where it refers back to Jesus' statement in verse 15:

GW "Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It's what comes out of a person that makes him unclean."

In verse 17, the disciples ask Jesus to explain that 'parable'.

With that footnote, I want you to know that I will really just be talking briefly about what we normally think of as parables, the story type.

In the episode notes, I give links to more complete and scholarly information than what I will present to you. In particular, I recommend viewing the 6 minute video from bibleproject.com entitled The Parables of Jesus. Also in the episode notes, I have links to both a video and a good summary about Interpreting Parables by Bob Utley.

=======

Bob Utley's Special Topic page on Interpreting Parables:

http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/special_topics/parable_interpretation.html

Bob Utley's video on Luke 15:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76EvjGy7Jw

Don't miss the cool video from BibleProject.com! Title: The Parables of Jesus

I appreciated the original thinking and humorous examples in this short article:

https://www.1517.org/articles/understanding-jesus-parables

=======

As I was thinking about what to mention to you, I was reading a historically-interesting commentary by Christopher Wordsworth from 1856, and I almost stumbled into a common error in interpreting parables, which is thinking of them as allegories. An example of this is Luke chapter 15, where we have the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. Wordsworth gives an allegorical interpretation, assigning an identity to all the characters. In this case, the shepherd is Christ, who searches for his lost sheep. That's not too bad. But seeing the woman who loses one of her coins as a picture of the church, is definitely stretching things. Similarly in the Parable of the Lost Son, the father is interpreted as God, the younger son as the Gentiles who repent, and the older son as the Jews.

One of the things that leads people to take an overly allegorical approach to the parables has to be Jesus himself, in his foundational teaching about the parables found in Mark 4, Mat. 13, and Luk. 8. In Jesus' explanation of the Parable of the Sower, He might almost contradict my last point about allegorical interpretation. It just happens that the Parable of the Sower (also called the Parable of the Different Kinds of Soil) has clear allegorical elements (the birds, path, rocky soil, etc), whereas for many other parables it doesn't help to seek an allegorical identity for the various participants. A second thing that is unusual in the Parable of the Soils is that it has clear multiple teaching points, whereas most parables have a single, simple point.

I have mentioned all this heavy stuff to bring us around to this simple point: When we get too fancy in our interpretation of parables, we tend to miss the main point, which is to ask, "How does this apply to me?" The cool thing about parables is that Jesus intended them to be multi-purpose. People who were ready to believe in Jesus would get one interpretation, and the religious leaders criticizing Him would understand Jesus' meaning very differently. Both groups got a correct interpretation, as Jesus intended, even though the interpretations were different.

This propensity of parables to be interpreted differently has a plus side and a negative side. On one hand, we must remember that parables are not good for determining doctrine. Let's not decide the timing of Jesus' second coming based on parables, but some of the parables clearly illustrate something about Jesus' second coming. The plus side is that the Holy Spirit may use Jesus' parables to say something very pointedly appropriate for you.

I have been amazed that in the Parable of Different Kinds of Soil I sometimes find that I am dangerously close to living amongst thorns, way too concerned with the cares of this life. But in a few months when I come across the parable again, I find that I have moved over to the rocky soil, meaning that I might glibly say that I love God's Word, but on that day if I am honest, I have to admit that my roots are dangerously shallow.

Another illustration of a personal application for me is this, which I don't think I have ever shared with anyone before: When I read the story of the prodigal son, I am reminded that I acted like the prodigal son, when I was young and thoughtless, by asking for part of my inheritance early. I didn't realize that this was tantamount to wishing my father dead. How this must have hurt him! I wish I could tell him how sorry I am that I ever did that.

Don't look to parables for decisions about moving to another city, quitting your job, or selling your house. That's not what I mean by a personal application.

Finally, here are three final pointers:

• Understanding the context and the audience Jesus was speaking to is key to understanding what Jesus was saying.
• You can see a progression in Luke's Gospel that leads from more general parables about the Kingdom of God, to Jesus' identity as the king who will return, and to whom everyone will give an account.
• Look to see if the Gospel writer or Jesus himself tells what He was driving at. And also take note of any surprising twist in the story. Such twists often give an important clue to the meaning.

Let me illustrate that idea of a surprising twist found in some parables. One of my favorite booklets that we printed to display our translation in Indonesia is a collection of 25 parables. If I am in Indonesia, I like to have that booklet handy in my bag. There was one devout Islamic taxi driver that took me to my home at least six times. Because of frequent traffic jams in Jakarta, a 20 minute trip can take two hours on bad days. So I started reading the parables to him. He was interested, and it was way better than trying to debate with him about our religions. After many of the parables he would say, "OK, yeah. I think we Muslims could agree with that one." That continued until we got to the Parable of the Vineyard owner in Matthew 20. That's the one where the vineyard owner gives all the workers the same pay for a full day's work, even though some workers only worked for one hour. He responded, "What?! He did that? That's crazy. That's unfair!" This gave me an opportunity to talk about God's kindness. We call it grace. God wants to be generous with us, because none of us can manage to earn our salvation. God designed this counterintuitive situation so that all glory would go to our Savior, and none would go to us.

As I will not be living in the same place in Jakarta when I go back in July, it is not likely that I will take that route again with the same taxi driver. It is not appropriate for me to share his name. But you can join me in praying for that taxi driver that I read parables to.

One of my spiritual fathers (Richard Burson) introduced me to the parables of Safed the Sage. Safed was the pen name of William E. Barton, who lived from 1861 to 1930. William Barton was a highly regarded Congregational pastor, and also a published expert on the life of Abraham Lincoln. Barton also edited a Sunday School newsletter (and in his day, Sunday School included adult classes). In the newsletters he first published his Parables of Safed the Sage. These were picked up by newspapers who republished them, and around 1919 the parables were published in several books. Happily, you can find Barton's parables of Safed the Sage as free downloads at the Library of Congress website. They are in the public domain.

Barton's writing style is humorous because he used an affected old-fashioned style of English, mixing in expressions like in the King James Bible. And he heightened the effect by using capital letters in strange places, for words that he wanted to highlight. So I feel that often his parables are better when read, rather than in audio form.

I have so appreciated Barton's parables that I have recorded many of them for a podcast that I call JoySightings, found at joysightings.info. You can subscribe to this podcast in any podcast player.

I will give you two short examples of the parables of Safed the Sage in this podcast. They are different than Jesus' parables in that Safed usually gives the meaning of his parable at the end. I think you will enjoy the experience of hearing a new parable. Think of how engaging Jesus' parables would have been, and still are, for people hearing them for the first time!

The Gravity Trolley

I journeyed unto a distant State, even to California, and I rode upon a Trolley that ran Six miles back from the Railway Station into the hills. And I observed that all the way as we Ascended, the Motorman consumed Electric Current, but when we Descended, then did he shut off the Juice, and controlled our speed by means of the Brake, with an Emergency Brake at hand, and I spake unto certain of those with whom I rode, of the Trolley, and of how the Roadbed was all Up-Hill one way, and all Down-Hill the other way; and how they used two kinds of power, even Electricity and Gravitation, and each of them in one direction only.

And one of them spake unto me, saying, Thus it was intended when this Road was Surveyed, and before they had Electric Power; for in that day did they haul the cars Up-Hill with Mules; and there was a Platform upon the Rear of the Car, and the Mules Ascended the Platform and rode down. And they told me how the Mules soon learned the trick, so that as soon as they were unhitched they hastened to the rear of the car and climbed up.

And others told me many things about those Mules; and a certain Woman procured for me a Picture of the Car with the Passengers riding Inside and the Mules riding Outside, and the Mules enjoying it as much as the Passengers. And it pleased me much.

Now it came to pass in time that the Electric Current Emancipated the Mules, and the Owners of the Trolley sold the Mules. And farmers bought them at a good price, for the Mules were fat and strong. But it was a Bad Buy for the farmers.

For those Mules would pull the Plow Up-Hill to the end of the Furrow, and then turn around and seek to climb up on the rear end of the Plow in order to ride down! And when they found no Platform, then were they Troubled in their Mind and much Bewildered. Neither was it Possible ever to teach them to pull any load Down-Hill.

Now I know many people with whom this System worketh the other way, and who are very willing to be hitched up to a job that runneth down hill by Gravity or the labor of others, but who insist upon riding or being Unhitched when the Trolley hitteth the up-grade. For the work of the Lord hath its Up-Hill and its Down-Hill aspects, and if there be any Platforms provided for those who would ride, thou shalt find them already occupied by kindred souls who have beaten you to it.

On Rising Above the Clouds

I rode upon a Railway Train; and we were in the Rocky Mountains. And we awoke in the morning, and the Train was climbing, with two Engines pulling us, and one pushing behind. And we were nigh unto Twelve Furlongs above the sea.

And it came to pass as we ascended, that there were clouds below us, and Clouds upon the sides of the Mountains, but there were no clouds above us, but the clear shining of the Morning Sun.

And there came unto me a small Girl and her younger Brother, who were riding upon the Train, and we talked about the clouds. For so did John Ruskin, and Aristophanes, and the little lad was very happy, and said,

I have never been above the Clouds before.

And his sister was worldly wise. And she said, A Cloud ain't nothing but just fog.

And he said, Nay, but it is more. And behold now, how then is a cloud just under us, and we ride on top of it?

And she said, We are on the Rails, just as we always have been; and there can't nobody ride on a Cloud.

And the boy said, Jesus can ride upon a Cloud; For I saw a Picture of Him.

And the little girl said, Yes but that ain't us.

Now the little girl may have been right; but I thought within myself that this world hath too many people who look out on Life through her windows. For they see no sunlit Clouds, but only Fog; and they have little faith in rising above Clouds, but have confidence only in the Rails.

And I do not despise Rails, nor advise people to discard them and ride upon Clouds. Nevertheless, I have seen people rise above Clouds, and live in the sunlight of God. But I have known others who, whenever it is said unto them, Thus have other men done, or thus did the good Lord Jesus, make reply, Yes, but that ain't us.

And if it is spoken concerning the House of God, Thus did the Synagogue in Jonesville, and thus was it done by the Church in Smithville, they answer, Yes, but that ain't us.

And if it be said, Thou shouldest be a better man; for other men have risen above thy Clouds and thine Infirmities, they say, Yes, but that ain't us.

And when it is said, Thus hath the grace of God abounded in other lives, they say, Yes, but that ain't us.

But if it ain't, why ain't it?

For this cause did God dwell in human flesh: That men should never count any good thing impossible that they behold in the dear Lord Jesus.

For he is our peace, who hath broken down all middle walls, that men should no longer say, But that ain't us.

May the Lord bless you 'Real Good'!

Phil

Hey there! It seems like we are off to a good start this year in the Daily Bible Reading Podcast.

In this extra podcast, I am trying to give answers to frequent questions.

First I want to ask you to share the DBRP NOW with your friends. If you started listening to the podcasts just a few days ago, then perhaps it has occurred to you, “Hey, this podcast would be perfect for …” this or that friend. If so, please share with them right away. This first week of the yearly plan is a great time to start listening, and if your friend wants to, he/she can easily catch up with you. Then you can discuss the readings together.

I invite you to contact me if you hear mistakes in my podcasts or if you would like to send a comment. My favorite way for you to contact me is via the Contact button at dailybiblereading.info. It’s in the upper right hand corner of the screen. If you write about a problem in accessing a certain podcast, please tell me what device you are using and what podcast player.

But hey, before writing to me, please check out the Read This First pages linked in the banner bar at dailybiblereading.info. That’s the place to go for information about Bible apps, podcast apps, Bible sites useful for digging deeper. and also information about me (Phil) and Gale.[a]

After a break in listening to my own podcasts, in 2022 I came back to listen to them again in a concentrated way, looking for things to improve. I ended up making improvements to 154 out of the 365 episodes among the NLT podcasts, and I will continue making improvements to the GNT series in 2023. But now I am afraid that I may have introduced new errors in the NLT series. So for you listening to the NLT series in 2023, please let me know if you hear mistakes or if a certain episode has inferior recording quality compared to the others.

YouVersion now has an audio play button at the bottom of every page in the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. Because that reading plan is sponsored by the Daily Bible Reading Podcast, some people will think that the play button is giving them the recordings for the podcasts. It does NOT. If you hit the play button, you get a Siri/Alexa-like voice that reads the devotional content page, and after that page, the app will play whatever voice is bundled with the translation you have selected.

If any of the people who have recently subscribed to the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan in the YouVersion app are confused like that, then they won’t get the message about their mistake, since they will never see the extra podcast that I release like this one. However, when the voice pronounces the name of Job as job, I hope that they will figure out that they are not listening to a podcast. Actually following the 3D reading plan that way is not too bad. I’m just sorry that those who do this will miss out on the extra information that I sometimes give in the podcasts, and also they will miss the prayers at the end of each podcast. For more information about my two full-Bible reading plans in the YouVersion app, please visit the Read This First pages linked at dailybiblereading.info, and look for the page that is about Listening to podcasts.

Now let me give you a selection of quick tips. 

If you have any questions about why I have recorded the NLT and the GNT for the DBRP, please see the Read This First pages. Those two are the most understandable English translations for those consuming Scripture in audio form.

If you started listening to episode 1 podcast on January 1st, if you don’t want to install a podcast app, you can simply go to dailybiblereading.info or dailygntbiblereading.info. Your daily episode will be near the top. Using that website is also a great way to listen if you are using a computer instead of a smaller device.

If you are somewhere in the middle of the year or are irregular in your listening, a good podcast app will make it easy to select the next episode without having to remember the day number or search for it.

If my reading is too slow for you, a good podcast app will let you choose to speed up the audio. My favorite speed is 1.20. I don’t recommend listening to Scripture at 1.5 speed if your aim is to understand it and think about it.

Two years ago, when I was reading the 3D plan and not listening to the audio[b], I enjoyed using the MyBible app, which works on both Apple and Android devices. It has MANY options for customization. A simpler app that allows you to follow the 3D plan is called Quick Bibles. The Indonesian version of that program is the most popular Bible app in Indonesia. You can download and follow the Digging Deeper Reading plan in both of these two apps instead of using the more popular YouVersion/Bible.com app.

Please, if you are listening to the DBRP on your commute to work, have things set up with your podcast app so you do not need to touch your phone. If you commute to work with an Android device, I recommend that you check out using the Podbean app. If you sort the DBRP podcasts in ascending order (low to higher numbers), then the app will automatically move from one episode to the next without a touch.

One of the easiest ways to listen to the 3D plan using smart speakers. Please see the Read This First pages at dailybiblereading.info for instructions about using smart speakers, and also for more information about podcast apps.

At the first of each year, I frequently have received email questions asking me to explain what I said about the Orya people in the introductions to Genesis 1 and 2. I said this:

I have seen first-hand in my work in Indonesia that when a people group misunderstands and twists the story in Genesis 1-3, it will have far-reaching consequences for their lives. In the case of the Orya people, twisting the story of the fall caused much suffering and misery among families.

==============

It was about 1986 when Isaak Sasbe made a special trip to see me. At that time I and several Orya men were about to finish translating the Gospel of Mark. While I knew how to say lots of things in the Orya language, I usually couldn’t follow everything in an extended narrative in that language. So, on the day Isaak visited me, I am so thankful that I thought to turn on my little tape recorder. In the following months, I would carefully transcribe everything that Isaak told me. Isaak was the governmental head (or the mayor) of the village of Santosa. This is the story that he told, and that which the people there learned from his uncle, Daud.

In the beginning, Adam and Eve and other Orya people lived on Jadam mountain. They lived by the power of God. They even had glass in their windows. And they could just think about it, and food would appear on their tables. And they could just think about it, and all the dishes would be washed and put away. (They lived by the magical power of God and didn’t have to work.) But it all was ruined when Adam had sex with Eve. Until that time people lived without sex. So God got angry and told Noah to build a big boat. When the boat was finished and the flood waters started coming up, everyone who helped build the boat could get on. Those that got on included Jesus. As the flood got deeper, other people tried to climb up, but Noah hit them over the head with a hammer and they fell back into the water. Jadam mountain was the only mountain peak left above water, and the remaining Orya people stayed there until the water receded. But Noah and Jesus took the power of God with them in the boat, and they sailed away with it and landed in America. That’s why you Americans live with the power of God.

Then Isaak said something most significant: “I came here to ask you: How can we get the power of God back?” (The anthropology article that I wrote on this is published with the title Of Paradise Lost.)

Of course I tried to explain to Isaak that all this was twisted and wrong! I remember his disappointed look upon hearing my explanations. Years later I gained insight as to why he would have been disappointed. According to his belief, if I really had the secret of the power of God, I wouldn’t share it with anyone, because that would let others in on the secret. If I told other people how to share the power, the result would be less power and wealth for me.

Eventually this story and another told by Isaak’s uncle resulted in what anthropologists call a ‘cargo cult’. Such movements are common in the Papua province of Indonesia (formerly called Irian Jaya), and the other side of the island in Papua New Guinea, and in the Solomon Islands. A cargo cult starts when a charismatic leader arises (like Isaak’s uncle Daud), and tells people, “Hey, we’re doing things wrong. If you do what I tell you, we’ll be blessed with cargo (health, wealth, and prosperity) from our departed ancestors.” Daud’s twist on this was that the thing the Orya people needed to do to unlock garden-of-Eden-like prosperity was to trade wives. That idea actually had almost nothing to do with Adam and Eve falling into sin in the garden, but with Moses and Joshua and the raising of the walking stick at the crossing of the Red Sea.

A little note about Isaak’s uncle’s background: Daud was one of the few men of his age that went into town and learned the Malay language. So when the first Malay-speaking evangelists came into the Orya area, he was one who was often called upon to translate what the preacher said. That’s where he learned Bible stories. How I wish I had recordings of those Maylay sermons and Daud’s translations! Another point worth mentioning: Spontaneous sermon translations are not a good way to present the Gospel.

There is a little interesting thing here also from a Bible translation perspective: The false teaching of Isaak’s uncle involved taking literal happenings in Bible stories and taking them figuratively. Orya people still struggle with this: “Adam and Eve surely didn’t sin by just eating a fruit. How silly! It’s no big deal if I take a papaya from someone else’s garden. They had sex.” Now, a figure of speech in Orya is ‘to pick a flower with someone’, and it means to commit adultery with that person. So it was very logical for them to think that picking a fruit was a euphemism for forbidden sex. And Daud’s false teaching was that Moses didn’t literally raise a walking stick over the Red Sea. Orya men always go to war in pairs. The junior goes first and strikes the first blow, and the junior warrior follows and dispatches the victims. The less senior warrior is called (using figurative language) the other man’s ‘walking stick’. So Daud said, “Instead of Moses raising his literal walking stick, he and Joshua (who were war partners) exchanged wives. God was so pleased with that that He opened the Red Sea for them to escape.”

 

When Daud first started promoting this teaching about wife-swapping, the Orya people didn’t just start having free sex. No, Daud and the other leaders regulated which pairs of men would trade wives. I said before that this led to misery. Imagine this: Among two couples, there might be 2-3 of them who were happy with making the trade, but 1-2 were not thrilled with having sex with their new partner. When I first heard of all this, I imagined that it might be all the guys who would be happy, and all the women who would not be. But, in fact, I heard stories of misery from both sexes. One could not run away from this. Where could you run to? And would you leave the children behind? Women were beaten. People of both sexes were trapped. And sexual sin is sticky, in the sense that it inescapably brings more sin and shame with it. Plus it all has to be kept hush-hush, and you can’t tell anyone about your problems. Trying to regain a Lost Paradise using human ideas results in misery.

I’ll probably tell you in another podcast how, years later, the Lord used his Word to defeat the cargo cult. One terrible effect of the cult was to distrust anyone teaching differently from the cult teaching. That is one thing the Lord defeated. Before the occasion that brought the defeat of the cult, people would hint to me about their cult activities saying, “We’re doing our traditional cultural practices to bless this land (meaning to bring prosperity).” Note that after only 30-40 years after the start of the cult, they called the wife swapping their ‘traditional cultural practice’. That was not their true tradition! I, the newcomer and foreigner, had to remind them! In the olden days before Daud Sasbe, adultery was severely punished. The punishment was to have your thigh shot at close range with an arrow. The thigh would be pierced with a big spear-like arrow— the kind used in killing pigs. Not many committed adultery back then.

God, our creator, has every right to tell us humans how to live. People who live as God instructs us in the Scripture are actually the happiest people in the world. God knows what is best for us. And He has been kind enough to not hide this knowledge from us. He made us male and female to harmonize together in a beautiful way. A couple is so harmonized that two become one, one body. Any time we humans say, “Oh God didn’t really mean what he said about __x__ in the Bible!” (you fill in the blank) — we are headed for trouble and misery. My stories about how the Orya people were led into degrading sexual sin probably sound so strange to you that you can hardly believe it. Well, when I tell the Orya what is happening now in the sexual revolution in America and other first-world nations, they can hardly believe it! The sexual revolution will not lead our society to Paradise, happiness, or prosperity, but to shame and misery.

=============

I want to repeat my appeal from the top of this episode: Please share with your friends about the 3D reading plan and the Daily Bible Reading Podcasts.

Any day of the year is a good day to start listening to the Bible. The Holy Spirit will never tell you not to read the Bible. That message comes from someone else. Expect the Holy Spirit to speak to you each time you read or listen to the Bible. Please forget about me and listen to Him.

Gale and I send you our New Year’s greetings, and as always, I say, May the Lord bless you ‘real good’.

 

 

 

Hey, happy New Year to you all! If you happen to be one who started the DBRP at the beginning of 2021, you have surely noticed that our readings have contained one prophetic figure of speech or metaphor after another that all say that, “In the end, Jesus, the Son of God and Lion of Judah WINS. Blessed are you if you faithfully endure as a believer and follower of Him. The times that we are living through will be increasingly tough. Stand firm in holy living and in doing good works that glorify God. You will not be disappointed in the results!”

In 2022 my prayer is that we believers become better ambassadors of the basic beliefs taught in the Bible. How can we help our friends, family, or casual acquaintances to see the errors in the pagan worldview that is being promoted in the media today? I recommend the videos, podcasts, and books by Greg Koukl. His organization is called Stands to Reason, and his website is str.org. In particular, I recommend his book called Tactics. Be sure to get the 10th Anniversary Edition, which is available also as a Kindle book/audio book. The great thing that Koukl teaches is how to use questions in discussions with people holding different views, so that your conversations don’t turn into arguments. (All the links for things I mention today are found in the episode notes.)

At this time every year I give suggestions for other audio Bible podcasts, so that after listening to me for a year, you can listen to another voice. The great granddaddy of daily Bible reading podcasts is the Daily Audio Bible. Another good one is the Daily Radio Bible. As you choose a reading program for next year, I urge you to remember the basics that I give in my How to Study the Bible video, https://youtu.be/sPyAp8ZxDBE. Be sure to pick a plan that will have you reading some of the NT every day, not zipping through the NT starting in September or October.

Some of you who listened to the NLT podcasts this year may want to listen to my GNT podcast series next year. If so, the site is dailyGNTBiblereading.info.

If you want to use the YouVersion Bible app for your daily Bible readings, my 365-day plan is called ‘Digging Deeper Daily’. You can search in the YouVersion plans for Digging Deeper Daily, or find the direct link in the episode notes.

Digging Deeper Daily: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/1314-digging-deeper-daily

If you would like to listen to David Suche reading the NIV Bible (as I did in 2020), I suggest that you follow the YouVersion plan named ‘Read to Me Daily’. If you select the NIV UK edition as your Bible, then David Suche is the reader. You can search in the YouVersion plans for ‘Read to me daily’.

Read to Me Daily: https://www.bible.com/reading-plans/13707-read-to-me-daily

This 365-day reading plan is presented in four semesters.

For information about other apps you can use for Bible reading or listening to the Daily Bible Reading podcasts, please see the Read This First pages that are linked in the top bar of the dailybiblereading.info site. If the app you are using does not show you the episode notes with clickable links and paragraph formatting, there are many other apps that will do a better job of that.

For people following the Daily Bible Reading podcasts in 2022, I will not be starting a new Facebook group or sending our special emails next year. But if any of you will be starting groups on some social media platform for a small group following the Digging Deeper Reading plan, I would like to offer my help and encouragement. If your group has questions that I might answer from a Bible translator’s viewpoint, you can invite me to join your group. I won’t have time to be active in multiple groups, but I would be glad to answer questions and encourage your group. I will continue sending out news or informational podcasts at random times, like this one.

Finally, I want to remind you that these 4-5 days are the peak times when people make resolutions to read the Bible. Please share with your friends about the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan and the DBRPs. Please give them the link: dailybiblereading.info.

Gale and I wish you a joyous year in 2022. May the Lord bless you ‘real good’!

Hi friend, I’m so glad you’re listening to this update. I will share a very useful tip today.

Before I tell you about that, I want to ask for your help: Are you one who made a New-Year’s resolution last year to read the whole Bible? Well, how did that go for you? Would you be willing to share a word of testimony from your year reading the Bible to encourage others? If so, please use your voice memo app on your cell phone to record your message. You might share a verse that meant a lot to you this year, or share some way God used his Word in your life. I will post your comments at the dailybiblereading.info website. I will tell you how to make and send your audio file to me at the end of this episode.

If you are one of those who made that decision a year ago and have kept up your reading since January 1, you know that we are now in the big Prophecy binge-reading time at the end of the year, reading minor prophets, Isaiah, and Revelation. The possibility of seeing correspondences between your three daily readings goes up to about 95%.

Some people find the prophetic genre difficult. Recently I had a conversation with one of our church’s elders. He had undertaken to do a thorough study through the book of Jeremiah, and found it very difficult. More than that, he complained about his frustration in understanding the book of Revelation. I want to offer a little help in this area that I re-discovered recently. Here’s the tip I mentioned: Dr. Bob Utley’s Free Bible Commentary (http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/) Note the word Free!

What you get in Utley’s commentary is expert information that is gleaned from a lifetime of research. Dr. Utley has dedicated himself to making a high-quality commentary on every book in the Bible. His work is scholarly, yet written so that it is easy to understand.

So, in view of our current prophecy-reading binge, I would like to share some thoughts on the prophetic genre, which is also called the Apocalyptic genre. Many of us recently read the book of Daniel. You may recall that chapter 11 is filled with incredible details prophesied to Daniel by an awesome angelic messenger. I am not going to go into any of the details now. What I will do is to give you some introductory material from Bob Utley’s commentary on Daniel 11. I will summarizing some general points about the prophetic genre that Bob Utley quoted from D. Brent Sandy’s book Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic.

1. From Daniel 2, "What Makes Prophecy Problematic?"
   1. "the question is whether emotional language is necessarily exact language," p. 41
   2. "hyperboles, in effect, stretch the truth in order to increase the impact of the words," p. 41
   3. "a prophet's intent may be to express emotion more than exactness," p. 41
   4. "at what level are readers supposed to understand the prophetic visions—every detail? The overall picture?" p. 48
2. From Daniel 3, "How Does the Language of Prophecy Work?"
   1. "if we fail to grasp the inherent metaphorical nature of language, we fail to understand prophecy," p. 59
3. From Daniel 5, "How Does the Language of Apocalyptic Work?"
   1. Are the details in the vision allusive and symbolic or precise and explicit? Generally, the images lack precision," p. 117
   2. "anticipating the details of political events of the fourth through the second centuries raises the issue whether the point of the vision is the details or the overall impact," p. 119
   3. "but we must not begin with the specific lest we fail to grasp the global!" p. 122
   4. "it is also expected with the nature of apocalyptic language that some details may simply be for effect; stated another way, some details may be make-believe," p. 124
   5. "details may have no particular significance other than to give the account more emotive power," p. 126
   6. "there is a certain amount of futility; therefore, in trying to determine the significance of all the details of apocalyptic visions," p. 126
   7. "to read the Apocalypse with a microscope, even striving to decipher the significance of the most minute detail, defrauds the genre of it intended function," p. 127
   8. "understanding the orality of the Apocalypse underscores the point that correct interpretation pays more attention to the overall impression of the visions than to the individual details," p. 127
   9. "from the vision in Daniel 8 we learn that while apocalyptic may seem on the surface to describe the future in detail, in point of fact, it does not. Some details may in the end match up with a precise event, but it would have been impossible to see that in advance," p. 128

       

      1. From Daniel 6, "How Have Prophecies Been Fulfilled?"
         1. "the already fulfilled prophecies demonstrate a pattern of translucence rather than transparency. The intent was apparently not to give specific information about the future," p. 146
         2. "figures of speech abound in the poetry of prophecy. That should suggest that correct understanding of prophetic poetry is often not possible until after the fulfillment," p. 150
         3. "if we grasp the intent of prophecy as primarily prosecution and persuasion, we will not expect it to reveal details of the future," p. 154

             

            1. Daniel 7, "How Will Prophecies Be Fulfilled?"
               1. "because prophecy is poetic, it is inherently ambiguous and in some ways less precise," p. 158
               2. "given the nature of prophecy, we should probably deduce that it offers panorama, not close-up details," p. 163
               3. "prophecy and apocalyptic: it is a stained-glass window, not a crystal ball," p. 184
               4. "the function of the prophets' language was to draw attention to basic ideas about the future, not to reveal precisely what will happen and when it will happen," p. 184

                   

               5. Conclusion
                  1. 1. "the fundamental question is, does the language of prophecy intend to give us details from which we can preconstruct how the future will unfold?" p. 206
                     2. "biblical prophecies were generally not understood before they were fulfilled," p. 199
                        This perspective has helped me as I struggled with Dan. 9:24-27. It is less helpful with chapter 11 because there are so many corroborated historical details from Dan. 11:2 to 11:35. Daniel 11:36-45 parallel Dan. 7:7-8,11,24-25 and 9:24-27. These seem to fit into Jesus' words in Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21; Paul's words in 1 and 2 Thessalonians; and John's words in the Revelation. However, as the NT authors saw fulfilled OT prophecy only after Jesus' life, these end-time events are not all literal, historical predictions. Only time will tell. But for those last generation of hurting and dying believers, many (but not all) of them may be very literal to encourage them to faith and hope (which is the purpose of all apocalyptic literature).

It was actually my Bible translation team in Indonesia who re-introduced me to the Free Bible Commentary series. They described the commentaries like this: “Utley doesn’t promote only his own interpretation of a passage. Instead he equips the reader with all the information needed to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of differing opinions, giving you the tools needed to make good interpretive decisions.”

My wife, Gale, has been leading two groups of women at our church every week in studying Isaiah 40-66. It used to be that I would find post-it notes on the dining room table with questions for me to answer. Ever since I showed her Bob Utley’s commentary, I seldom find post-it notes on the breakfast table.

Now, to let Bob Utley help us with the book of Revelation, I would like to read a couple of paragraphs from his Introduction to that book:

Most of my adult academic/theological life I have had the presupposition that those who believe the Bible take it "literally" (and that is surely true for historical narrative). However, it has become more and more obvious to me that to take prophecy, poetry, parables, and apocalyptic literature literally is to miss the point of the inspired text. The author's intent, not literalness, is the key to a proper understanding of the Bible. To make the Bible say more [than the original writer intended] (doctrinal specificity) is as dangerous and misleading as to interpret it in such a way as to make it say less than was intended by the original, inspired writer. The focus must be the larger context, the historical setting, and the intention the author expressed in the text itself and in his choice of genre. Genre is a literary contract between the author and the reader. To miss this clue is surely to lead to misinterpretation!

The book of Revelation is surely true, but not historical narrative, not meant to be taken literally. The genre itself is screaming this point to us if we will only hear it. This does not mean that it is not inspired, or not true; it is just figurative, cryptic, symbolic, metaphorical, and imaginative. The first century Jews and Christians were familiar with this type of literature, but we are not! The Christian symbolism in The Lord of the Rings or the Chronicles of Narnia might possibly be modern parallels.

…

These apocalyptic works were never presented orally; they were always written. They are highly structured, literary works. The structure is crucial to a proper interpretation. A major part of the planned structure of the book of Revelation is seven literary units, which parallel each other to some extent (e.g., the seven seals, seven trumpets, and seven bowls). With each cycle the judgment increases: seals, 1/4 destruction; trumpets, 1/3 destruction; bowls, total destruction. Within each literary unit the Second Coming of Christ or some eschatological event occurs: (1) sixth seal, Rev. 6:12-17; (2) seventh trumpet, Rev. 11:15-18; an end-time angel judgment in Rev. 14:14-20; (3) seventh bowl, Rev. 16:17-21 and again in Rev. 19:11-21 and still again in Rev. 22:6-16 (also note the three-fold title for God in Rev. 1:4,8 and Christ in Rev. 1:17,18, "who is, who was, and who is to come," notice the future aspect is left out in Rev. 11:17 and Rev. 16:5 which means the future has come [i.e. second coming]). This shows that the book is not chronologically sequential, but a drama in several acts which foresees the same period of time [expressed] in progressively violent OT judgment motifs (cf. James Blevins, Revelation as Drama and "The Genre of Revelation" in Review and Expositor, Sept. 1980, pp. 393-408).

There is so very much more that I could share. Here again is the link to Dr. Utley’s commentary on Revelation: http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/new_testament_studies/VOL12/VOL12.html

Once again, if you have been blessed by reading the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan this year (no matter where you are in year’s readings), please share your blessing by recording a voice memo for me. This request is for anyone who has been following the Digging Deeper Daily plan, no matter if you have been reading in a Bible, or listening to the daily podcasts. To send your audio file, use the contact button at dailybiblereading.info. Please write a short message to me saying that you have recorded a message for me. You won’t be able to attach the file. But I will reply to that email, and then you can attach your audio file to your reply to me.

May the Lord bless you ‘real good’!

Phil & Gale

I hope that it will be interesting to you to share 14 verses that rang a bell for me this year. In collecting these verses, until recently I didn’t plan on sharing these with you. Rather, this is more like letting you see verses I wanted to use to preach to myself.

Stay tuned at the end. I would like YOU to share your favorites with me!

Random:
GW'20 Proverbs 29:2

2 When righteous people increase, the people ⌞of God⌟ rejoice, but when a wicked person rules, everybody groans.

I’ve heard many groans this year. Remember, by the way, that when the nations of Israel and Judah sinned, one way that the Lord repeatedly punished them was by giving them bad kings.

 

GW'20 2 Chronicles 26:16

16 But when he became powerful, his pride destroyed him. …

My thought here is that some things have gone well in my life and ministry this year. But I pray that I can avoid pride, because it is such a trap and so dangerous.

How King Uzziah must have regretted going into the temple to burn his own incense during all the remaining years of his life, excluded from visiting the temple, living in a separate house, and receiving reports of how his son was ruling in his place!

 

PCF Ecclesiastes 10:1

1 One dead fly can make a whole bottle of perfume stink. Even so, a little foolishness can outweigh great wisdom and honor.

I am at the place in my life where I want to finish well. I want to leave behind a good smell (so to speak) when people remember me. The word ‘foolishness’ in Proverbs refers to bone-headed refusal to obey God. The last thing I want to do is to mess up at the finish line. A little stupidity at the end can leave a stench that obliterates a God-honoring testimony.

 

GW'20 Proverbs 14:14

14 A heart that turns ⌞from God⌟ becomes bored with its own ways, but a good person is satisfied with God’s ways.

When I struggle with impure thoughts, it helps me to think that if I gave myself up to follow the cravings of my lower nature, my joy in that kind of a lifestyle would last about 10 minutes. Boredom would come so quickly, and eventually I am sure I would repent. But the resulting wound of remorse in my heart would never totally heal.

 

Faith:

PCF/GW Proverbs 23:17-18

17 Do not envy sinners in your heart. 
Instead, continue to fear the LORD.
18 There is indeed a future for you, 
and your hope will not be crushed.

 

I picked this verse to use in preaching to myself. I don’t often envy sinners, but just the good fortunes of others. A powerful thing to remember when tempted to envy or lust is that I have a really fantastic future promised by God. The hoped for outcomes there are safe, in that place where moths and rust don’t ruin things. Don’t look back. Keep looking forward! The next verse tells us what we are gazing at.

 

PCF/NLT 1 Peter 1:8-9

8 You love him,
even though you have never seen Him.
And even though you do not see Him,
you believe in Him
and celebrate with glorious joy
that goes beyond anything words can say, 
9 since you are receiving the proper goal of your faith,
namely, the rescue of your lives.

 

Love Him. Don’t forget your rescue, and the privilege you have in knowing Jesus through all of God’s Word. Keep hold of joy!

PCF/GW Matthew 12:39

39A He responded, “The people of an evil and unfaithful era demand miraculous signs. …

 

There is a reason why the Lord gives miracles sparingly. Miracles may help give someone's belief an initial nudge, but miracles never grow mature faith. People who seek to go from one miracle to another (if the Lord permits that to happen) continue to need to be spoon-fed. Most of the heroes of faith in chapter 11 of Hebrews did not receive what they trusted God for. They developed a faith that could stand any test

Planning:

NET Luke 14:28

28 Which of you, wanting to build a tower, doesn’t sit down first and compute the cost? …

 

This verse is leading up to Jesus’ teaching about counting the cost of being his disciple. However, let me make a tangential point: Some people have gotten the idea that Christians shouldn’t plan anything, but just be led by God without planning. I believe that this is totally false. A parent doesn’t want to always have to tell his child to take a bath or to go to bed. God wants his children launched into this world prayerfully making their plans and moving ahead to complete them.

 

GW'20 Proverbs 16:3

3 Entrust your efforts to the LORD, and your plans will succeed.

 

Read that several times. So I ask you: What will happen if you don’t make any plans?

It’s a good idea to pray!

NET/PCF Matthew 7:11

11 If you then, though you are so sinful, 
know how to give good gifts to your children, 
just think how much more your Father in heaven 
will give good gifts 
to those who ask him!

 

So I ask again: What will happen if you don’t ask God for good gifts? (And by ‘gifts’ I mean the answer to prayers about plans you have made for glorifying God in your life.)

 

This is like  NET Matthew 7:7

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.

I’ll pause in order for you to answer out loud. So what happens if you don’t knock, 
don’t seek, 
and don’t ask?!

 

ESV Hebrews 11:6

6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

 

This is the foundation for receiving what you ask God for in prayer.

 

GW'20 Matthew 6:6

6 Whenever you pray, go to your room and close the door. Pray privately to your Father who is with you. Your Father sees what you do in private. He will reward you.

 

After those other verses, I might as well follow the same pattern and ask: What will happen if you DON’T go into your private place and pray? 

There is a big promise there that I don’t want to fail to cash in on! Consider: We are going before the Almighty King of the Universe. Through Christ Jesus, we have the wonderful privilege to be able to appear before God the Father and make our requests. I take this verse literally and urge you to do so also. That is, actually go into a private room, actually close the door. Realizing that you are entering the throne room of God, do what people did throughout the pages of the Bible: Humble yourself and be reverent! Get down at least on your knees (if you are physically able to do this) or even bow down lower. Pray. Then rejoice in that promise.

 

ESV/PCF Psalms 145:18

18 The LORD is near to all who cry out to Him, to all who cry out sincerely.

 

The ESV says, ‘to all who cry out in truth.’ To me this means that we will not be just going through the motions, saying the right words, but not really meaning them. This is why I translate ‘in truth’ as ‘sincerely’. Sincere prayer is also believing prayer, like James 1 tells us. 

I wrap up all that I have shared with this verse, Eccl 12:11. The ‘wise advisor’ in this verse is Solomon, and definitely not me. However we can extend the idea to the Lord being the wisest advisor.

The translation of this verse is my translation of how this verse comes out in the Plain Indonesian Translation.

 

PET Eccl. 12:11

The teaching of a wise advisor is like a shepherd’s stick
that is used to guide and direct his sheep.
May every saying given by this advisor and shepherd be nailed into the mind of every learner and guide them in living rightly.

Please pray for my visa to Indonesia to be granted, so that I can go there on November 2. If it is granted, I will need to quarantine for eight days in a hotel before being released to live like I normally do in Jakarta. Exciting things are happening there with the use of the Plain Indonesian New Testament.

 

Sometime before the end of the year I want to publish a podcast with YOU reading your favorite verse from this year. Here’s what to do: Use a voice recording app on your phone to record your favorite verse. Then say something about why that verse spoke to you. Try to limit your explanation to 3-5 sentences. I recommend going into an echo-free room, like maybe your clothes closet, and hold the phone away from where it will catch explosions of air when you say some words. Send the audio file to me at [email protected].

 

May the Lord bless you ‘real good’.

Phil

JEREMIAH 46-47:
After finally being able to give a comforting message (“Stay here in Judah and don't go to Egypt. The Lord will take care of you”), the people not only ran off to Egypt but took Jeremiah with them. (Or did he go along willingly?) Perhaps he thought that in Egypt the Lord's message to stop worshiping idols would have some traction. But again, alas... No. Then yesterday we heard the short special message to the official Baruch, Jeremiah’s faithful secretary. In today’s reading, the Lord begins giving oracles about different nations.

PROVERBS 8b:
Lady Wisdom continues to speak.

1JOHN 1:
It is believed that John wrote this letter later in his life, somewhere between AD 85 and 95, and perhaps from Ephesus. He addresses everyone as his ‘children’. Like the emphasis of John’s gospel, this little book focuses on the word ‘believe’. And the word ‘know’ is used over 30 times in this short book. And it is because of that very word that this letter is famous for giving assurance— especially to any who have trouble accepting that God would choose or love them.

NLT Translation note:
1Jn. 1:3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our [inclusive] fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

 

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.