Daily GNT Bible Reading Podcast

JEREMIAH 11-12:Yesterday we heard important verses in chapter 9:23-24, verses that Paul quotes more than once:

9:23 NLT “Don’t let the wise boast in their wisdom,or the powerful boast in their power,or the rich boast in their riches.24 But those who wish to boastshould boast in this alone:that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD ...

PSALM 143:It seems that prayer is very neglected these days. Oh yes, we might hear something vague about praying for victims right after some tragedy strikes. But it seems that every church has trouble keeping a prayer meeting going. I myself have trouble keeping my prayer life going. David shows in this psalm that he has learned secrets of effective prayer. Note how his prayer is very like how Jeremiah felt in the two chapters we just read.

JOHN 21:This is one of my favorite chapters. John again tells us important information not given in the other gospels. Note that there is a famous exegetical fallacy here. John does use two different words for ‘love’ in the dialog between Jesus and Peter. But this should NOT be taken— as has been so frequently taught, as showing a play on words, or that John was intending different shades of meaning. Instead, the use of synonyms is just a feature of John’s style in writing. John does this for poetic variation, like the parallelism in Hebrew poetry. Another example of this in this same passage is the variation of ‘little lambs’ and ‘sheep’.

GNT Translation notes:Jer. 12:1 “Lord, if I argued my case with you, you would [be shown//prove to] be right. Yet I must question you about matters of justice. Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why do dishonest people succeed?====Ps. 143:9 I [come//go] to you for protection, Lord; rescue me from my enemies.

JEREMIAH 3-4:From yesterday’s reading, I highlight 1:12b, where God says,

1:12b GNT “I am watching to see that my words come true.”

In Hebrew, the word ‘watching’ is a play on words.

Yesterday we also read Jeremiah 2:13, which is one of the most frequently quoted verses from this book. Look at it in context starting at verse 11:

Jer. 2:11 GNT No other nation has ever changed its gods,even though they were not real.But my people have exchanged me,the God who has brought them honor,for gods that can do nothing for them.12 And so I command the sky to shake with horror,to be amazed and astonished,13 for my people have committed two sins:they have turned away from me,the spring of fresh water,and they have dug cisterns,cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

PSALM 139:What a contrast with what we just read! Our God searches us out and knows all about us. This psalm has been a great comfort to many.

JOHN 18b:

Jesus knew he was walking inexorably to the cross. To me it is interesting that in Jesus’ short time with the governor of the land, he brought the focus to the concept of ‘truth’.

GNT Translation notes:

Jer. 4:2 [NLT Then when you swear by my name, saying,‘As surely as the LORD lives,’you could do sowith truth, justice, and righteousness.Then you would be a blessing to the nations of the world,

and all people would come and praise [Me//my name[//GNT it will be right for you to swear by my name. Then all the nations will ask me to bless them, and they will praise me.”][I was going to bet that the NLT added the words, “As surely as the Lord lives” in order that the idea of ‘swear’ing not be taken in the sense of taking the name of the Lord in vain. That can also be called ‘swearing’ in English. But I find that my assumption was wrong! It seems that GNT left out the Hebrew words ‘YHWH live’, and even literal versions translate the two words like NLT. I think this may be one of the few places where one could defensibly say that GNT made a mistake, and the CEV translators must have simply have followed it without checking the Hebrew.] ====Ps. 139:18 If I counted them, they would be more than the grains of sand. [And] When I awake, I am still with you.==== John 18:33 Pilate went back into the palace and called Jesus.[and asked him,] “[So,] Are you the king of the Jews?” [0//he asked him.]37 So Pilate asked him, “Are you a king, then?”

Jesus answered, “[NIV You are right in saying I am a king.//You say that I am a king.] I was born and came into the world for this one purpose, to speak about the truth. Whoever belongs to the truth listens to me.”38 “And what is truth?” Pilate asked.Then Pilate went back outside to the people and said to them, “I cannot find any reason to condemn him.

JEREMIAH 1-2:The book of Jeremiah was written between 627 and 580 BC. Counting the number of verses, Jeremiah is longer than all other books of the Old Testament except Genesis and Psalms. Jeremiah is often called the weeping prophet, and his other book is Lamentations. It is possible that he is the son of the high priest Hilkiah who brought the book of the Law to the attention of king Josiah. Having just heard in 2 Kings an overview of what happened during the last days of the kingdom of Judah, we now will hear the poems and sermons of a sensitive man living through it all. Mears says, “No other prophet bares his soul to his readers as does Jeremiah. Although Jeremiah announced the coming destruction of Judah, he looked beyond this judgment to a day when everyone would know the Lord personally through the forgiveness of his or her sins (Jer. 31-34). This new kind of relationship with the Lord would be part of the “new covenant” the Lord would establish with his people (Jer. 31:31).”

PSALM 138:

This is the first of a series of eight psalms where the psalmist speaks in the first person singular. This psalm includes an important declaration in verse two, which ESV translates like this:

Ps. 138:2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

NLT and CEV have done a good job translating the meaning, and I particularly like the second phrase in NLT.

JOHN 18a:

As John said in chapter 13, “Jesus, having always loved his disciples, he loved them to the end.”

GNT Translation notes:Ps. 138:2 [NLT I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I praise [you//your name] for your unfailing love and faithfulness; for your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.//CEV I worship at your holy temple and praise you for your love and your faithfulness. You were true to your word and made yourself more famous than ever before.//GNTD I face your holy Temple, bow down, and praise your name because of your constant love and faithfulness, because you have shown that your name and your commands are supreme.]====John 18:10 [Peter— whose other name was Simon, had a sword. He//Simon Peter, who had a sword,] drew it and struck the High Priest's slave, cutting off his right ear. The name of the slave was Malchus.

JONAH 3-4:Running from God didn’t work for Jonah. When saved from the ocean, Jonah grudgingly obeys God.

For most of my life, I have been fooled by Jonah's prayer in chapter 2, and I am not alone, because others have called it, “One of the great prayers in the Bible.” For most of the prayer, Jonah simply borrowed verses from the Psalms. And there is nothing wrong with that! However, if you look closer, Jonah prayed a me-centered and self-righteous prayer. The worst thing about it is there is no hint of repentance or asking forgiveness.

PSALM 137:As a musician, I can imagine what the musician who wrote this felt. The imprecation at the end should be taken in view of God’s justice. Compare the thought here with Rev. 6:9 and following verses (the cry of the saints under the altar), and also the ending chapters of Revelation that portray the vengeful judgment against ‘Babylon’— which in that book is used as a figurative name.

Rereading JOHN 17:Note again the importance of the organic bond of union between the Father, the Son, and we who believe in Jesus. Again note the bond of love. Note that our Savior actually prays for us. And this is because we live in a world that is not our home.

GNT Translation notes:Ps. 137:4 How can we sing a song to [You, Lord,//the Lord] in a foreign land?====John 17:1 After Jesus finished saying this, he looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to [Me,] your Son, so that [I//the Son] may give glory to you.2 For you gave [Me//him] authority over all people, so that [I//he] might give eternal life to all those you gave [Me//him].3 [I, the writer, agree and add that, “//And] eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know [Christ Jesus//Jesus Christ], whom you sent.[” Jesus was still praying,]21 I pray that they may all be one. Father! May they be [joined as one with//in] us, just as you are [joined with//in] me and I am [joined with//in] you. May they be one, so that the world will believe that you sent me. 23 I [— joined as one with//in] them and you [— joined with//in] me, so that they may be completely one, in order that the world may know that you sent me and that you love them as you love me.26 I made you known to them, and I will continue to do so, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and so that I also may be [one with//in] them.”

Greetings and welcome to this first edition of an occasional series of podcasts that I am starting to add extra commentary for those following the Digging Deeper Daily reading plan. I hope that the things I share in this episode will be relevant to those who have arrived at day number 14.

I have taken the title for this series from Mark 13:14 (GW). As Jesus is prophesying in that chapter about the destruction of Jerusalem, he says, “When you see the disgusting thing that will cause destruction standing where it should not (let the reader take note), those of you in Judea should flee to the mountains.” [God’s Word Translation]

The parenthetical note, “let the reader take note” probably was addressed to the one who read out loud to others. In Mark’s day, not many people in a congregation would know how to read. The Greek word for ‘read’ in this verse actually means ‘to read out loud’. Because of that, some commentators feel that this warning to understand was not just for the reader, but was intended as a plea to the reader to explain to his listeners about Daniel’s prophecy that mentions ‘the disgusting thing that will cause destruction’. So here I am, your reader (for the whole Bible, not just Mark’s Gospel). I thought it might be helpful to you to give some information that doesn’t fit in the daily podcasts, but I still, of course, will not have time to answer all questions. My intent is to encourage you to dig deeper by sharing things I find to be interesting and inspiring in the passages you have read or listened to already in the 3D plan.

If you have questions or comments, my favorite way for you to send messages to me is via the contact button at dailybiblereading.info.

Incidentally, from now on I will quote a lot from the translation called God’s Word for the Nations, because I am personally reading that version in my own devotional readings this year. And this year I personally am reading a real-book Bible. See the godsword.org site linked in the episode notes for information on how you can get a gorgeous GW Bible at a great price. And the newest edition is available in YouVersion and the MyBible app. (GW'20)

The first verse I would like to share about is Genesis 1:1 (NLT). “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Some translations say ‘heaven’ singular, but the Hebrew is actually plural, ‘heavens’. When my team and I translated that into Indonesian, because Indonesians haven’t previously known a concept of plural heavens, we translated this verse as, “... God created the levels of heaven and the sky.”

When Scripture talks of plural heavens, the sky is the lowest layer, and ancient people had the concept that there were three or perhaps seven layers of heaven. Some of you will recall that Paul was caught up to the ‘third heaven’ in 2 Corinthians 12.

It is for this reason that I see verse one as not being a summary of what is to come in Genesis 1-2, but as a hint of acts of creation that we are not told about which happened before the creation of this world. There were principalities and powers and myriads of angels in the heavenly places that were put there before God started counting the six days of creation. To me, it is kind of awesome to think about that.

Now quoting from Genesis 1:14 (NLT), “Then God said, “Let lights appear in the sky to separate the day from the night. Let them be signs to mark the seasons, days, and years.”

Instead of ‘seasons’ the God’s Word translation translates ‘religious festivals’.

The word that can mean ‘seasons’ as NLT translated it is normally translated ‘religious festivals’ all throughout the rest of the OT. In our Indonesian translation, we translated it as ‘seasons’ but we provided a footnote to tell readers that this word often is translated as ‘religious festivals’.

Here’s the thing I think that is neat about this: Translators have frequently chosen to translate ‘seasons’ because it is kind of strange to talk of religious festivals when there are not yet any people on earth on the 4th day of creation. BUT consider this: God was preparing all of creation, including the sun and moon, to support humans who would worship Him. We can say that the love and worship of Himself was God’s ultimate goal in the creation of the universe. We exist for his worship.

In Genesis 4:19-21 we read that, “Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. Adah gave birth to Jabal. He was the first person to live in tents and have livestock. His brother’s name was Jubal. He was the first person to play the harp and the flute.”

Isn’t it interesting that the harp and flute are mentioned so early in human history! Certainly Jubal not only played the flute and harp, but he invented and constructed the first ones as well. I think this little...