Joshua 21:1-22:20; Luke 20:1-26; Psalm 88:1-13; Proverbs 13:15-16
Today is the 20th day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. And it is a pleasure and it is an honor to be here with you today for the next step forward through the Scriptures as we continue to navigate our way through the peaks and valleys that the Bible takes us through as well as allowing the Scriptures to speak to the peaks and valleys of our lives. So it is a pleasure and an honor to be here. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. And we’ve been navigating for a bit now through the book of Joshua, which finally took us into the promised land. And we’re rounding the corner on the book of Joshua. A few more days and we will be through it. But we’re not there yet. Today Joshua chapter 21 verse 1 through 22 verse 20.
Commentary
Okay. So in the book of Joshua, the two and a half tribes that were given land on the other side of the Jordan River back when we were on the trail with Moses before the children of Israel ever came into the promised land… They have finally been given their leave. They’ve done their duty. They’ve become rich in the process and they get to go home. And so they do. But when they get to the Jordan River, they build this huge altar, which is causing quite a stir. In fact, so much of a stir that we have… Well, we’re gonna get the precipice of civil war. And if that breaks out, that’s gonna be a nasty battle indeed. Because these two and a half tribes who are going back across the Jordan, these are battle-tested warriors at this point. They have been at war with their brothers taking the land all along. So this breaks out, it’s not gonna be a good scene. The other tribes, of course, send representatives along with a priest to confront them and that’s where we kind of end today. Why have you done this? Why have you built this altar? Don’t you know what’s going to happen? Don’t you know that when we turn our backs on God he holds us all responsible? What is going on here? And so the Bible gives us a little bit of a cliffhanger. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out where the story goes.
In the Gospel of Luke, people are asking Jesus similar kinds of questions. Who gives you the right to do the things that you are doing? By whose authority are you doing these things? It’s one of these moments. And obviously the Scriptures tell us that Jesus (never) rolls his eyes or anything like that. We find moments where he’s exasperated. But it sort of seems like one of those kinds of moments where he’s gotta be thinking, is this a serious question? I mean, the things that are being done are revealing the kingdom of God in this world. People are being restored So Tom didn’t give me the right to do these things. Jane didn’t give me the right to do these things. What kind of a question is this? Of course, Jesus knows what’s going on and there’s an incredible amount of envy and an incredible amount of fear around Jesus because he’s upsetting the apple car. He’s messing with the authority lines. That wouldn’t be that big of a deal except for people are following Jesus now. And very very similar things had happened with John the Baptist. And this is starting to be a problem. Jesus, on the other hand, you know what I mean? We see so many instances where Jesus is asked a confrontational question and he answers back with a question. Or it seems like he answers the question in a way that’s like, he’s not answering that question. What Jesus is doing, and one of the things about being Christ-like that we need to observe in our own lives, is that Jesus is taking a moment to look at what’s really going on, right? These guys didn’t just come to Jesus and say, hey we were just curious, how is it that you have this kind of power? Can you share with us how it is that God has anointed you in this way? How did that happen? How did you get this authority? From a serious perspective, they’re confronting Jesus with the accusation embedded into the question. And the accusation is, God did not give you this authority, so who did? And embedded within that is a barb. You are not who you say you are. You are an impostor. You are deceiving and tricking these people through magic and we know your game. That’s sort of the insinuation there, right? So Jesus knows they’re not coming and asking a straight up question from an honest place. So he knows that he can’t simply say my father gave me this authority. This is what I came to do. Because what good is that going to do? They’re not going to be like Oh oh oh, okay, cool. We were just wondering. Like that’s not how this is gonna go. So Jesus sees the entirety of the situation. And he responds to the truth of the situation. In this case, he asks a question that is going to reveal to the people around and to the people asking the question themselves their own heart in this matter. So he asks, who gave John the right to baptize? Was it God or was it a human being? Alright. A no win situation. They had asked Jesus a no win question. He couldn’t just say, my father gave me this authority. That wasn’t the answer they were looking for. It was a confrontation. So he flips it back around upon them and puts them in the situation they were trying to put him in. And Jesus wasn’t trying to humiliate them or embarrass them in any way. He was simply trying to pull out what was really going on. And when we realize that we have been given the spirit of the risen Christ, the mind of Christ, that if we will slow down, take a beat, invite the Holy Spirit to show us what’s really going on, we can be much more Christ like, much more like Jesus in our lives than when we just get all defensive or reactionary. How are we acting in these instances? Which brings us to the Proverbs, which invites us to consider how we’re acting. If you have good sense, the Proverb tells us, you will act sensibly, right? You will be sensible. If you have good sense the byproduct is that you will be sensible. But fools act like fools. So let’s look at the way that we act today. How do we respond in situations today? What is our reaction? What are our impulses? It will tell us a lot.
Prayer
And we invite you, Holy Spirit, into that. Cause a lot of the time we react defensively or any number of ways that may in fact be foolish because we didn’t just take a second to really try to understand the heart of the matter. And we don’t see examples of that happening in your life Jesus. And we wanna be like you in this world as your body, the living breathing body of Christ in this world. We wanna take our place in that story. And that will require that we be like you. And we can’t do that without your Holy Spirit obviously. So come Holy Spirit. Show us the ways that we’re living disconnected from you and oblivious to what is truly going on. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.
Announcements
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community prayer and praise
Hi all. I’m calling about the sister that called anonymously about her marriage. And oh dear sister. And you aren’t the only one. There are so many of us husbands and wives that no matter how long we’ve been in a relationship, we are just ready to give it up because we’ve done all we can. We’ve done all we could. We’ve tried and tried and tried again and it just weared us thin. The thing is now, dear sister, to just love him and to continue on. You still have a life to live even though you’re in a relationship. So I’m not sure where you are in your life, but he has been as he is that maybe you can grow as you are and move on on that and that will make it easier for you to accept or maybe make it easier for him to grow. I’m praying for you and all those like you, for relationships I know are so hard. In Jesus name, dear brothers and sisters.
Hey Daily Audio Bible. It’s Stanley from Maryland. Man, I just listened to the program and heard little Ezekiel talking to Brian, to the DAB community. And I know it was so, words can’t describe. I just think about my life and, you know, being a child, what that was like. And it’s just a beautiful beautiful thing to happen. So I really am appreciative about that and just remembering that God is waiting for me to. He always has his arms open, you know? I can always run to him. And it is true. I feel like I’ve always believed the lie that no one’s here for me. I’ve gotta figure things out all by myself. I’ve gotta do things and do it all by myself. What if… Just what an amazing amazing experience that was. I just want to thank you Brian. Thank you Ezekiel. Thank you God. And thank you community for just being here and sharing this time and these experiences together. God bless everyone. Bye.
My beautiful family. This is Pastor Gene from Bradenton Florida. God bless you. Please join me in prayer here. Father, you are such a good God and we love you so much. Plant this from our ( inaudible) oh God and may your Holy Spirit help us to pray. Father, I thank you for each and every one of my sisters who went to the More Gathering. Father, I know by my own experience that right after you return Satan will try to steal the seed that has been planted. I pray against that in the name of Jesus. I pray that my sisters will see clearly the ( inaudible) of the enemy and will refuse to let go of the truth and the liberation and the freedom that you’ve given them this weekend. Father, I thank you for my brother Robert from Indiana. Oh God I bless him. (inaudible sentence)
Oh God, I thank you that he is giving out what he received, Father, that led him to Christ. Thank you. Thank you for his passion. I pray with all of my heart, O God, that you will move mightily among them and that you will do a special work in their lives.
To be continued
Hey DAB family. It’s Dr. John from Jordan New York. Just wanted to let you know about Cinnamon and thank you for your prayers for her. She had to undergo an emergency C-section. Yes, you can do C-sections on sheep. And she came through that OK, but we lost both of the lambs. The vet is considering it a miracle that she survived. She didn’t think she would be able to save Cinnamon. She thought she might be able to save the lambs. But they both died because her uterus is twisted. So thank you for your prayers on that. Thank you for your prayers for my mom. She has officially gone into hospice. She was doing little bit better. And now she’s very comfortable. She’s waiting to meet her Lord and savior. She can’t wait. But it’s gonna be a little bit for my dad to.. He’s getting used to this so we have to wait on him. So I think that’s the hold up and why mom’s still around. So pray for my dad that he will come to acceptance in terms of my mom dying and he’ll be prepared and have the people around that he needs. Thank you very much family. Love you very much. Buh-bye.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family. This is Teresa in Florida. It’s 10 pm on April the 16th. I’m on my way to work. My husband told me before I left to go out the door, a little before that I guess, he doesn’t love me. He doesn’t have any feelings. He loves me but he doesn’t have any feelings for me. I’ve been trying so hard. Anyway, I need some prayer. I feel guilty for even asking as I know everything anyway. I didn’t feel guilty. I know this is what I’m supposed to do. I need your prayers. Pray for my strength
Hi, good evening everyone. This is Shondra calling from Maryland. I was calling because I was listening to the community prayer. I believe it was from the fourteenth. And to be honest I came on just to listen and I have some things going on and I was hurt, angry, frustrated and I was still gonna listen to the community prayer. However, once I was just sitting there listening, I felt like the loads and the weights were lifted off of me. And I would encourage anyone else who may be going through something and they don’t know where to go where to turn just to listen. Just like the introduction says.