Exodus 13:17b-15:19, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalms 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19
Today is the 1st day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian, it’s good to be here with you. And now we’re not on the threshold of a shiny, sparkly, new week. We are here at the beginning of a shiny, sparkly, new month, which means that we have also completed a month together. And what ground we have covered. So, I’m looking forward to seeing where the trail leads us through this month of February. And we’ll pick up where we left off. Of course, yesterday. That will lead us back into the book of Exodus where the children of Israel have finally tasted the first spoonful of freedom, but as we’ll see, even though there free, that does not mean they are devoid of challenge. Exodus chapter 13 verse 17 through 15 verse 19. We’re reading from the English Standard version this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, Jesus is being confronted by religious leaders. That’s not a surprise. That happens quite a bit in the Gospels. And we will have noticed, even at this point in the book of Matthew, that a lot of times when Jesus is having a conversation or teaching something he’ll use an illustration, he’ll tell a story. It’s called a parable. The parable is basically a story that’s an illustration of what’s being communicated because that’s largely how we, as human beings, communicate. We communicate through story. So, like, you’re sitting down with friend, your catching up, you tell stories. Right? You don’t come in with a bullet list of facts that you just want to convey, and you convey your facts, and they convey their facts, and you leave…like…you tell the stories, because, when we tell things as a story we can embed in them the emotions of the story. They’re more than facts. We can bring in how everything felt and we can bring in all the details of life. This gives us a more comprehensive way to communicate. And Jesus did this as a matter of teaching style, consistently. So, the religious leaders come to Jesus and they keep coming to Jesus kind of testing Him, trying to get and say something, trying to get him to slip up. And, so, they’re asking him, who gave him permission, basically. Who gave Him permission? By whose authority is He doing what He’s doing. And He gets asked these kinds of questions often. And we can see in Jesus responses how He, is able to navigate these things. He is always able to see what’s going on behind what’s being communicated. Like, He can see the motive. And He always speaks to that. No matter what’s been asked or said to Him, He always speaks to the motive. He always speaks to the heart of the matter. So, in this case Jesus is being asked about the authority that He has been granted to do what He’s doing. Who gave that to Him? And He answers that with a question of His own. And it’s about John the Baptist. Because what John the Baptist was doing and what Jesus is doing are part of the same move of God to do something new in the world, to make a massive transformation to the world. So, He goes back to John and asks the people who are questioning Him where John got his authority. Was it God or was it man? That’s an unanswerable question that exposes the motives and the heart of the matter with these people. They can’t answer that question because they’d seen what John was doing. They’d seen how he was drawing a crowd, but they’d also seen how people were repenting and their lives were being transformed and they were jealous. This could make them lose control. So, they sat on the sidelines. They couldn’t do anything about it because the people thought John was a prophet, but rather than realizing, hey, God may have sent a prophet to us, God may be speaking to us again through the voice of a prophet. Something big has happened, something that hasn’t happened for centuries. Rather than doing that they stayed on the sidelines and mocked. They rejected this in the same way that they’re rejecting Jesus. And Jesus is holding the same kind of status among the people, that of a prophetic voice, an anointed of God, a miracle worker, a healer. So, Jesus tells some stories. And the stories are all to illustrate everything that’s happening in this confrontation. So, He talks about a man who had a couple of sons. And He tells the first son to go and work in the vineyard. And the first son tells him he’s not going to do it. But then, later, he thinks about it and changes his mind and goes into the vineyard. Then he talks to the other son and tells him to do the same thing and the son tells him, yeah sure I’ll go. But then he doesn’t. And then Jesus asks, so, who did the will of the Father? And they answered correctly, the first one. Well, they just admitted to what they’re doing. They could understand Jesus illustration, His parable but they couldn’t understand that this was them. So, the father asks the first son to go into the vineyard and the son says, no, I’m not going to go, but then he changes his mind and goes. This is like the people that are coming down to John the Baptist, who know their culture, and know their faith, but are not participating in it, but then change their minds and are willing to obey. But repent means exactly that, to change your mind. So, they changed their ways, they change their mind and go into the vineyard. So, tax collectors, prostitutes, they’re changing their mind about their faith about walking with God, repenting and going into the vineyard, whereas the other son in this parable is saying, sure, I’ll go, sure I’ll go, which represents these religious leaders, thinking that there right with the Father, but they’re just giving lip service to the whole thing. They don’t go and actually participate in the kingdom. And, so, when Jesus asks who did the will of the Father in this story, they’re able to say, the one who said no I’m not going to go but then changed their mind and actually obeyed. So, they answered correctly, but implicated themselves as the offender. Same with the other story. There’s a master of a house. He planted a vineyard. Right? So, he bought the property and fixed it all up for tenant farmers. He leased it out and then when the harvest came he sent some servants to collect his share. But these tenant farmers didn’t give their share, they beat up and killed the servants who came to collect the owners share. This is like the prophetic voices and leaders and kings that God had sent throughout the story of the Hebrew people. So, the master then sends another delegation. In other words, he tries again. And again, they reject. This probably represents John the Baptist’s ministry. Once again, God is sending someone. He’d trying again, but again, they completely reject. And, so, the master then sends his son, thinking that certainly they will respect the heir, the one who owns it all, ultimately, but they don’t, they kill the son. You can see the parallels very clearly. But then Jesus asks a question. What’s the master going to do? What’s the owner of this vineyard going to do? And they answer correctly. He’s going to come wipe those people out. And once again they’ve implicated themselves. So, rather than just…some kind of confrontation…it’s one of the many people who are coming to try to catch Jesus. Jesus is truly trying to show them the error of their ways. He’s truly trying to get them to open their eyes. And they can see what He’s saying, but rather than falling to their knees, rather than repenting they’re just mad at Jesus because he’s embarrassing them. But Jesus is just trying to help them. But they’re not going to listen. Jesus knows they’re not going to listen. But then we have to look into these stories and ask ourselves, are we listening? Do we have ears to hear? Has the master invited us into the story and we’ve said no were not going there? I’ll go some places, but I’m not going there, I’m not going into that. But then think it over and change our minds, repent. Or are we the people that are like, yes, of course master, of course I will, but then we don’t. In this story it was the first son, the one who said no, but then changed his mind and obeyed that did the will of the Father. So, making mistakes, that’s not the issue here. Falling down, that’s not the issue here. Sven saying no, that’s not the issue here. The first son did say no, but then thought the whole thing through and repented and obeyed. It was the other one, the one who had it all together, the one who looked like they were obedient and said yes, but did not obey, who did not do the will of the Father in this story. And in the other one we have this illustration of multiple attempts to get the tenant farmers to do what they had agreed upon, but they rejected. And we see in the Bible, multiple, multiples, upon multiples, upon multiples, of attempts by God to lead His people forward. And if we sit down and think about our lives, we can see multiple attempts, attempt, after attempt, after attempt, to get our attention and lead us forward. Are we listening or are we rejecting?
Prayer:
Father, as we do every day, we invite You into the Scriptures that were spoken over us today. And we invite Your Holy Spirit to show us the places that we need to repent honestly, places we need to change our mind and obey, the places that we’ve given lip service to things, but had no intention of actually following through, the times that You’ve come for us, over, and over, and over, and we’ve rejected You. We invite You into those areas of our lives that exist now. We need to change our mind about those things. And the first way to do that is to understand them and name them and let them be out in the light. And, so, Holy Spirit, You bring light and good news and life. You lead us into all truth. You reveal the narrow path that leads to life. And, so, we’re inviting You to speak to us. Show us the ways that we’re resisting. Show us the ways that we’re rejecting. Show us the ways that we find ourselves like religious leaders who are more interested in protecting their control. Help us Father, because these things can dwell inside of us even for decades that us without us really knowing how to name them. So, and we invite You to come, Holy Spirit and lead us into all truth. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Hello DAB family. This is Abiding in Him and I want to pray for Joe the Protector. Heavenly Father, Your heart loves to hear Joe’s voice. It’s so warm and inviting. It always is and has been heavenly Father. But its sunk. We hear the misery that his family is going through now. Lord, we call him the protector because he’s always prayed over us, he’s always encouraged us, he’s always been there for us over the years. But he can’t protect everyone, but you Lord are the true protector. You look to and fro. You know our comings and goings. Nothing is outside of your surveillance. So, Lord show yourself as the protector in this protector’s life. Please touch the heart of his baby girl. Lord, wrap your arms around Madison, strengthen her from the inside out, let Your Spirit to descend upon her in a special way that overrides all the dark lies of the evil one and opens her eyes to the oceans of love that she sits at the bottom of. Pull her back from the depths of this depression Lord. Bring forth a new reality in her. She is beyond what Joe the protector can do, but she’s not beyond what You can do. Rise up Lord, rise up, watch this child. Wake her up and put her back the palm of the Father. Be with Joe, be with his wife, be with the rest of the family, help them through this difficult time. Bring doctors and nurses and technicians together Lord and make it happen. And show her Yourself that You’re the ultimate protector.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. It’s Richard from Québec Canada. Yes…it’s been like almost a year that I didn’t call in and I didn’t call to wish Merry Christmas. So, I will wish you a late Merry Christmas and a beginning of a very beautiful happy new year to everybody. I changed my phone. I know it’s not an excuse, but by changing my phone…all my numbers…I didn’t get all my numbers…I didn’t get the prayer number, and it took me a while to just stop and write it down. But I want all of you to know that I’ve been listening faithfully to the reading of the Bible and it’s always a blessing, filling my soul with God, being in touch with God. I love you Brian and Jill and all the team behind the Daily Audio Bible family. I love you all you family and my prayers are with you. And, yeah, I just wanted to say God is good, God is good, God is very good in my life and my couple, my beautiful wife, and I’m going now like three…three…almost like three services every Sunday, two different church. We’re going to downtown Montréal Evangel church, shout out, alleluia, the Evangel people listening to the Daily Audio Bible. And Emmanuel Pentecostal church with pastor ___ Matthew. Alleluia, he’s in East India now. So, please pray for him. He’s doing a big ministry there. And also, at Evangel, we have a team that is going to Ukraine. And I heard in the news that in Ukraine there’s a big revival because the government has lifted the thing there that we can now be able to preach the word of God freely there. So, it’s amazing what God is doing in my life, and your life, and it’s amazing and just want to praise the Lord today… This beautiful…
Yeah, hi I’m calling in because I just heard a call, a prayer request for Jordan in Michigan. He’s a teacher and, you know, I really related to you Jordan and I wanted to reach out and just say I’m going to pray for you and let you know that because, I, you know, I was interviewing to be a teacher this past school season. And I totally get where you’re coming from. It is so much confusion that is brought on and disillusion. I want to say there’s so much, just, contemporary clutter and politics going on in the school system. And it is clear that this is not a healthy environment to me…and I haven’t even entered the working force. I didn’t get hired. Praise God. I think it is actually…I think it’s actually a prayer request. God lead me in another direction. I really wanted to. Right? And I thought it was where God was leading me, to help children and be a part of the teaching, learning community for the kids, but the school systems are really hard to navigate for anyone, whether you’re adult or child. So, Jordan I feel your pain brother, and I’m praying for you. And I just wanted to say one more thing real quick. We are all, we’re all searching, and God is the only beacon of light. So, just hang in there Jordan. And everyone else just keep praying and believing in him. Have faith.
Hey family it’s 25th of January and this is Keith from New Hampshire calling. I just heard Joe from Georgia asking for prayer for Maddison. And Joe, I thank you for calling in. You know, when I heard your call, just really felt impressed. You know, I worry about the things that I have going on in my life and when I hear something like that it just makes me realize that my problems are so small. And I wanted you to know brother I’m praying for you. I’m going to pray…and let’s all pray right now. Dear heavenly Father, I just want You to give Joe and his family a hedge of protection like we read about that the adversary accused You of placing around Job. And, you know, there’s times in our lives when we really need that type of hedge of protection Father. You understand depression and anxiety and our complexities and our mind and our emotions better than we possibly could because you made us. And you know what remedies would be the most beneficial to us and it’s presumptuous of me to even think I can pray in such a way that would be beneficial to them. But I pray Father that You would release whatever remedies and healing and hedges of protection and angels that can come and fight their battles for them on the spiritual plane Father. I just want to lift up that family, the stress and pressure that everyone feels when someone is sick and no one can understand why and how. And I just want to pray Father, You know where Your children and we shouldn’t have to be desperate. We’ve got You as our Father and Your Son as our Savior and I get righteously indignant when I hear…
Yes. This is Christine from Washington state and I heard Jaden this morning requesting prayer, she’s from New York, she’s 11 years old. And honey, I wish you were closer to me. So, I just feel like I want to put my arms around you. I’m praying for your family, for healing for everyone, for your mother, your stepfather, your grandmother. And I pray wisdom for you and the people that already deciding where you should be, what’s the best situation for you. So, we just need to trust that God is going to take care of you honey. And you are wise. Your wise beyond your years to reach out for help. So, you are in my prayers. I also wanted to request prayers for, there’s been a rash of suicides in our area, and a good friend of my sons, her husband committed suicide recently. And I’m just requesting prayers for young people. There was a young woman that called in, I’ve been praying for you. Your son committed suicide and I am so sorry and praying for you too. It’s an epidemic. Satan is after our young people, our marriages. I also wanted to pray that, there’s a man, that children are, they’re are grown children, they are competitive athletes, I think in other countries. I hike a lot when I listen, so I don’t have names, but you’ve just been praying for my marriage and I’m thankful for you and I’m praying for your children as well. Anyways, I love you all. Blessings.
Blessed is Pelham who walks not in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the wake of sinners nor sits in the seat of scoffers. Pelham delights in the law of the Lord and in His law Pelham meditates day and night. Pelham is like a tree planted by a stream that yields fruit in season and it’s leaf’s do not wither. In all that Pelham does he prospers. That’s Psalm 1. Hi Pelham. This is Shelley in Oklahoma. I was painting my living room today when you called and over the next hour I just felt compelled to just keep lifting up you and keep lifting up your family. I’m so sorry that this unwanted career switch has happened. I wanted to tell you, I know this is a time of struggle, but you and Molly are going to have these through your marriage. And you need to remember, and this is so hard, that this is a season. This is and forever. This is a season. Your family is under attack and you must make sure that you and Molly are both pulling the wagon in the same direction. Communication is so important at this time. Keep in mind, it is really important, that those two babies have an intact family consisting of the two of the people who love them the most. Everything else fades back to that. Talk to God and talk to each other. I’m praying for you Pelham and for Molly and I know this whole community is also. You’ve always been so humble and so transparent on your journey through so many trials. You are so brave and you are seeking good things for your family. Find ways to ride out this season and thank God every day for every blessing that you have. I’ll keep praying. Keep us posted on how things go. Love you Pelham and I’m lifting you up.