Exodus 32:1-33:23 ~ Matthew 26:69-27:14 ~ Psalm 33:1-11 ~ Proverbs 8:33-36
Today is February 11th. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you at the end of another week. And we’re just trucking along. So we’ll go back out to the desert. Moses is at the top of the mountain of God. He’s been gone a while now. The people are down below watching all this and they decide to take matters into their hands. Exodus chapter 32, verse 1 through 33, verse 23, and we’re reading from The Voice Translation this week.
Commentary
Let’s get our bearings here because we’re about to move out in the Old Testament. So after the Red Sea incident where God lets the people cross on dry ground, and the armies of pharaoh, they don’t get the same treatment, the people are led to the mountain of God. This is where God begins to speak into the culture. This is what the people are supposed to look like. This is how they are supposed to behave. And he gives detailed instructions for a tabernacle, this portable tabernacle that will travel with them and sit in the middle of the congregation of the people who are a mass of people spreading out all over the desert floor. So all these things are happening because the people have consecrated themselves and come to the mountain to meet with God. And God has come down on the mountain and speaks to them through thunder and they freak out and they ask Moses “you be the mouthpiece. We can’t stand in the presence of God like this. We’ll die.” They are freaked out. So Moses becomes the prophet, the mouthpiece of God to the people. And he goes back up the mountain to hear from God, which is where we’ve been spending our last several days with the details of the tabernacle and the customs of the people. There are more to come, but God is beginning to share the foundational pieces of what this chosen people, people set apart unto himself will look and live like.
But they are waiting. They are down below waiting. Moses has been gone a while now, more than a month, and they are down there waiting. So you can kind of understand after over a month of just kind of camping out at the base of the mountain, wondering what is going on, especially since there is cloud on the mountain and thunder and all this kind of stuff, they are wondering what happened to Moses. Maybe he is gone. Then they begin to think maybe we’re on our own. Maybe we got all the way out here and we’re free, but we have no leader. We have no God. What are we supposed to do? And this is when they go to Aaron and they make this golden calf, so quickly turning their backs on where they are headed and looking backward to where they’ve been. And it’s not long before they are partying and worshiping this false idol.
But we do this too. We get out there in faith and then it is time to wait for the next instruction. So we wait and it feels like we’re in the desert and we’re just waiting. And a month goes by and we’re like where has God done? I’m out here all by myself. I’m free to go wherever I want to go now, but we start looking back in the rearview mirror and, like gravity, we begin to sink backward and downward and before you know it we are doing everything we ever did. We are bowing in worship to whatever we think can lead us forward and give us life. And that is the mirror that the Bible becomes.
Of course, God sends Moses back down the mountain. He had to be quite a sight when he walked into the camp with these two big stone tablets that had been written by the finger of God himself. That must have brought the volume down a little, you would think. Word would have spread pretty quickly, you would think, and Moses dramatically breaks the tablets because they have broken his commandments before they could even move out from the mountain of God. Of course, there is repentance and there is all this hem hawing around. Moses goes to his brother Aaron and is like, “What in the world have you done? What is going on here?”
And Aaron is like, “Uhhh, I just collected a bunch of gold and threw it into the fire and this calf came out of the fire.”
You can picture a penetrating stare, a wordless stare from Moses that says a lot. Things like “right.” And it’s just a big mess. And if we look at our own lives and the times that we have turned back to worship other things, to give our hearts to other things in adoration, to look to other things for life, it becomes a big mess.
So this is a big mess. Moses ends up back up the mountain and God is saying “I need you to lead these people. I’m not going. If I travel with you for just a minute, I wouldn’t be able to tolerate it.”
And Moses is like, “hold on. If you’re not going, there is no way. If you’re not going to come, then just take me out of the picture altogether. There is no way.”
And God listens to Moses. “I will do what you have said because you have gained my trust and blessing and I know you by name.”
Oh, I want that. Isn’t that what we’re really after here? To feel God’s presence saying “you have gained my trust and blessing and I know you by name,” the intimacy of that? The beauty in that? The availability of that? Wow!
And Moses gets to see the glory of the Lord. He can’t face him face-to-face with his human eyes. It will overwhelm him. He can’t even process it. God is beyond what we think we know. What we think we know is barely scratching the surface. So it will take an eternity to fully move into every aspect of intimacy with God, what we have as human beings, and Moses was able to experience, was the glory of the Lord and that is what our hearts reach for every day.
There is one who made this possible and available. His name is Jesus. We’re reading of his story in the book of Matthew as he, God in the flesh, is being denied, betrayed, beaten, spit upon, lied about, tortured, mocked. Every horrible thing that a person can go through he’s going through, God is going through these things and allowing it to happen at the very hand of his own creation in order to make this intimacy possible.
The book of Proverbs today sums up the posture of heart we must take, the attitudes we must live into for this to be a reality: Pay attention to my guidance. Dare to be wise and don’t disregard my teachings. The one who listens to me, who carefully seeks me in everyday things and delays action until my way is apparent, that one will find true happiness. For when he recognizes and follows me, he finds a peaceful and satisfying life and receives favor from the Eternal. But heed my warning. The one who goes against me will only hurt himself, for all who despise me are playing with fire and courting death.
Prayer
Father, we have bowed to the golden calf many times. It may have not been a golden calf. It may have been some other issue or thing or ambition in life, but we’ve felt ourselves being pulled forward only to feel the gravity of our past pull us backward, only to find ourselves right back where we started. We’ve done this many, many times. And yet you are going to a new place and inviting us into new territory. So even as we begin this journey with the children of Israel away from the mountain of God, we make this a moment in our own story and we’re not going back. We’re not worshiping another false God ever again. And we invite your Holy Spirit into what this looks like for us, what we’ve been giving our hearts in worship to and where it is you are leading us. Come Holy Spirit, we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements
Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website, home base. It’s where you find out what’s going on around here. Coming up on the radar quickly is the More Gathering for Women. It’s almost Valentine’s Day, guys. This would be the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift for the heart of the one that you love. Not just guys. This would be the ultimate Valentine’s Day gift for your own heart. So I have with me here in the studio my wife Jill. I’ve asked her to come and share a little bit about the More Gathering for Women coming up this April 6-9.
Jill: Hello family. It’s me, Jill, here to talk about More Gathering 2017. Obviously, I’m so excited about More Gathering. I say that every year, but honestly my anticipation, my excitement, it builds every year because I know what God does in this weekend. There are so many things that I could tell you about this. My first experience with any type of heart healing, exploration of the heart was when my husband forcibly signed me up to go to Captivating in Colorado with Ransomed Heart Ministries. That was absolutely a turning point for me in my life with some healing, with some intimacy with Jesus, with me walking into face-to-face recognizing my responsibility I have to play in my own story. With that comes necessary healing. With that comes some necessary digging and exploration. It was teaching unlike I had ever heard before, and I grew up a Christian my whole life. So More Gathering started as Captivating and over the years it has morphed into messages that God has specifically given Brian and I in our own hearts through our own healing. Captivating was essential in the story of my life and it was a stepping stone for us to get from Point A to Point, I don’t know, maybe we’re at like L-M-N-O-P, or somewhere around there, but this is where God has landed us.
I cannot emphasize how much a woman needs this time away. You don’t have to be a mom. You don’t have to be a wife. You just have to be woman. You have to be a woman who craves, desires and identifies a longing for something more in your life. And you don’t even have to have that longing. I just think we’re kind of born with it. I think it comes with who we are. That is the exploration of the whole weekend, our desire for more. I want to validate that need for more. It’s not the same need all across the board. It is specific to your heart, who you are, who God created you to be.
So this time away, you deserve it. I give you permission. Sometimes we just need permission from somebody because we have every obstacle in life coming against us of why we can’t or shouldn’t go. This time away, yeah, it’s going to require you to find babysitters and to make schedules and lists and cook meals and meal prep and everything. I get it. I’ve done this. Lots of women do this. But how bad do you want it, I guess is the question. How bad do you want it? I guess the only way to answer that is to tell you that you are worthy. You deserve this time away.
It’s once a year. It’s four days out of 365, so I want you to come without guilt, without shame and what is going to require of you to get there is to fight through all of those voices, all of those lies, all of the junk. There will be obstacles. There will be opposition to get there. You absolutely will have to fight through it. Things will even come up once you register and you’ll go, ‘oh, oh, well that came up. Oh, look at that!’ No, that is absolutely opposition that you’re going to have to fight through till the minute you leave, even after you get there to find the shuttle, everything. It comes. We see it every year. It’s a real thing. Take us serious. There is a team of people already praying for you to fight through, to war against the evil and the oppression that comes against this time. You will have to do your part. You will have to pick up your sword and fight to get through and you’ll have to go against the lies that say you are not worthy of this time. You need it.
Husbands, I want to talk to you specifically just for a second. If you want true change in your wife’s heart, in her life, do whatever you need to do to get her there. Do whatever you need to do, but do it just for this weekend, for her to have a time away to catch her breath, for her to listen to the reminders of who God says she is, who he created her to be, and to let her explore her heart and to have the most intimate weekend away with Jesus. I promise you, she will not come back the same, which means you guys will not be the same, which means your marriage will not be the same.
I could sit here and tell you story after story of things that we have seen every year, we have heard every year, but one that stands out last year to me was a friend that came whose marriage was in crisis. And I knew her. I knew the story and I just asked her to come. The Holy Spirit had already moved on her heart and she said, “I’ve already been thinking about it.” And she came. And I didn’t see her the whole weekend and I was fearful that she had left. Like maybe it was too much. Maybe she couldn’t handle it. I looked for her and I did not see her one time. She stood in the line, almost to the end of the line just to say hi before she got on the bus and she hugged Brian and she hugged me and she said, “I’m going home to fight for my marriage.”
I don’t think this is a fix-all, a cure-all. It’s not get her there and everything will be perfect in your life. I think it is a turning point for a woman’s heart that so desperately needs just to hear from Jesus. So guys, send your wife. Women, send yourself. Moms, if you have a daughter whose heart needs some resuscitation, send your daughter. Come with a friend. Come with your sister. Come with your mom. Come alone. I promise you, you won’t leave alone. It’s an experience unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I can’t describe it to you in words. You have to experience it. But come. There are so many surprises.
There are some questions I get every year: I don’t see a list of speakers and I don’t see a schedule. Well, there is a reason for that. We do not have the top speakers and Christian media coming to this event. We’re not enticing you and luring you with those people. I am proud of the fact that we do not have that. I am proud of the fact that I have the most incredible group of women surrounded in my life who are willing to get up and share their struggles. They are willing to get up and share their weaknesses and they are willing to get up and share their real life pain simply because that is where you’re at and you can identify with those women. So Brian and I do the majority of the speaking, but some of these friends are just women that have walked life out with me for the last years of my life. They are the most incredible women I know. They are coming. They are sharing. Live worship. There are so many surprises, I can’t even begin to tell you, but that is what we do. You live your life by schedules and programs and texts and text reminders and alerts and alarms and we just want you to come and we want you to trust us with this weekend. So every bit of information you need you get when you arrive at registration. Just get to registration. We’ll get you from registration to where you need to be after that, I promise. I promise you. And no woman has yet to freak out that they didn’t get a schedule handed to them before they came. So if you can trust us with that, I promise you it will be worth it.
Okay, like I said, I could go on and on and on. And I really need to stop. So come. And I am so excited that I will see you in April. More Gathering 2017. If you’ve already signed up, please go to the More Gathering 2017 Facebook Page. What we want to do there is send the You Tube worship songs so that if you’re not familiar with them, you can start listening to them. Those messages can start seeping into your heart and into your spirit and you can know them so that when it is time to worship together, that we all know the songs and we’re singing them together with one voice. So I promise you it will be life-changing and I look forward to seeing you in April.
Brian: Okay, well I don’t have anything to add to that. Looking forward to seeing you in April. You can get all the details you would want to know at this point at www.DailyAudioBible.com. Just look for the More Gathering and you’ll find it pretty easy.
And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Tamberly. I am calling today with an urgent prayer request. As many of you know, I’m a first grade teacher and I am blessed enough to work with my best friend. We don’t co-teach, but we teach right together in first grade. Anyway, she is being faced with significant issues with one of her students who she believes his mother has Munchausen’s and we believe that there is some significant things happening with that situation and with that young man. He is really, really struggling. I don’t want to go into a lot of detail, but there has been reports of abuse and things like that and now the mother is trying to go after my best friend and has hired one of the best attorneys in our town who is backed by a woman with very deep pockets. So nobody has ever said anything, I can’t think of anybody who has ever said a cross word or a mean word or a negative word about my best friend. She is an excellent, wonderful teacher whose heart is so much for children and I am just begging you for prayer for her. We prayed last night. We prayed over this young man. We believe strongly that God has a big mission for him and his life. I just pray that you will just cover him with your prayers for his own safety. And we just continue to pray for the truth to come out, that things will be revealed, and that the mom will be able to get some help or the help that she needs and that no weapon formed against my best friend would prosper. Her goal is not to defame anybody or to hurt anybody. Her goal is only for this young man to be protected and for God to be glorified. So I just truly covet your prayers and your protection for our sister in Christ. Thank you.
Hi DAB family. This is Will in beautiful Bozeman, MT. It’s February 8th and Brian, thank you so much for your commentary. It really spoke powerfully to me concerning Jesus and the disciples and their concern for the poor and what our concern needs to be for Jesus. It was like a mirror. So often in our self-righteousness we overlook the fact of who we are at times, that we’re so concerned about how something that has been given and who it has been given to when actually we’re the poor. We overlook ourselves at times. What I mean by that is we are struggling. We have challenges and we’re not facing the things the Holy Spirit is telling us we need to face, so we’re impoverished in spirit. We may be physically impoverished. Brian, you also mentioned the children of Israel and their concern about what their needs are and what Jesus talked about. Just read Romans 8:15 where it says you have not received a spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. We have to remember that. What did we receive? What blessings we have and though things look short, we can call on our Father and lately I’ve been in this mode of wondering if I’m all alone in my life. And just thought, reminder, today this morning, “Will, you’re not alone.” That was kind of a prayer in my heart and God just responded, “You’re not alone.” I just ask for your prayers, DAB family. I love you. Thank you so much. God bless you.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This is Abba’s __________ coming to you from the US and I just want to say a few things this morning. Listened to the podcast from February 1st again. It is extremely important. The reading was from Exodus 13:17 through 15:18 and also Drew from the Bay Area, this message is for you. Rest in that cloud of smoke that surrounds you. That is God protecting you from your enemies. Fear not, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today, for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you. You have only to be silent. God told Moses, “why do you cry to me? Tell them to go forward. Lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground. Drew, you know that God will get the glory. And then moving on we come to Matthew 21:23-46 and I just want to share that my notes say give the first of your best fruits. Live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Then on to Psalm 26, pray it, pray it, pray it. And then Proverbs 6:16-19: Know the seven things that God hates and avoid them. Avoid them. Well, this is Abba’s __________, your silent prayer warrior praying for all those who call in and even those who don’t. God bless you all.
Hi family. This is Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL. Want to ask for your prayer. My husband and I are about to call one of our spiritual daughters who is going through a true crisis in her very own marriage. This is a girl that attended church with us and we were her pastors since she was 13 years old and she got married around two years ago and this gentleman presented himself as a Christian. We counseled him for many, almost two years before they got engaged and it seems that he is living a double life. Our spiritual daughter just discovered it and she is devastated and we are just asking that you will pray that God will __________ to counsel her, to minister to him in spite of our pain and feeling of betrayal, and that God’s will will be established in this situation. We believe that God has exposed this so that he can rescue this son of ours, this spiritual son of ours from a very __________ but our humanness sometimes gets involved and our feelings are just hurt over this girl who is like a daughter to us. So pray that God will grant us with some power and anointing in the Holy Spirit to minister not according to the flesh, but according to God’s power and his word. Thank you family. And I pray for my sister Karen and her nephew that has mental illness and is being indoctrinated into Islam. I pray for his healing and deliverance. And I pray that you, O God, will rise within him and will show him the truth and will deliver him. I pray this in the mighty name of your son Jesus Christ. I love you family. Pastor Gene from Bradenton, FL.
Hi family. This is Salvation is Mine in San Leandro, CA. Two things tonight. One, I was given the name Alone in His Presence and I was given that to give out there to someone, but especially to a man. I don’t know who it is meant for, but one of the men out there that name is meant for, Alone in His Presence. The other thing is I was listening to February 6th and I heard my brother Drew from the Bay Area asking for prayer because he is going through. So family, if you would please join me, we want to pray for Drew and whatever is going on in his life. Dear Precious Father, our Savior Jesus Christ, we come before you right now lifting up our brother Drew from the Bay Area. Drew has said that he is going through. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that the word through is there for Drew. He’s going through. He will not be stagnant. He will not be stuck in one place. Whatever he is going through, Lord, you will bring him through. In Jesus’ name, you will bring him through. He will be loosed from every tie that binds him right now, Lord God. We ask you to please continue to help our brother Drew. Keep him safe. Help him. Lift him up. Let him know that you are loving him, that you are keeping him, that you are holding him. Lord, he is praying without margins. Let him walk in blessings without margins. Every step he takes will be one more blessing and he will give you the honor, the glory and the praise for those blessings, in Jesus’ name. Amen. Thank you family. Take care. Bye-bye.