Exodus 21:22-23:13, Matthew 24:1-28, Psalms 29:1-11, Proverbs 7:6-23
Today is the 5th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take our next step forward through the Scriptures this year. And we’ve worked our way all the way through the book of Genesis and are well into the book of Exodus. And that’s where we find ourselves for this next step. We’re reading from the Amplified Bible this week. Exodus chapter 21 verse 22 through 23 verse 13.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the Old Testament we’re moving into the territory where the law is being given and although there will be many dramatic stories and fascinating people that we’re gonna meet over the next span of several weeks, we will also be spending quite a bit of time with the giving of the law. And the Mosaic law, which is what is being given here is gonna grow up to become the law that judges Jesus. And we’ve mentioned that. But here we are at the very beginning of it and just the giving of it. So, this is a holy thing that is happening here. God has gone and rescued His enslaved people who He had covenanted and promised to bring into a land that He would give to them. He went and got them and then He led them into the wilderness and the wilderness is definitely not the fastest route to the Promised Land, like geographically, but God led them into the wilderness because some very, very, very, very important lessons needed to happen. One of those lessons was the fact that these people needed to learn to be utterly and completely dependent upon God because He was setting them apart as holy to be His own possession. And, so, they needed to learn that their only hope for any kind of future and hope, for any kind of provision, for any kind of defense or offense would come from God. And this in part was because the people had only ever known slavery. Everyone that was out in the wilderness at that point had only ever known the identity of a slave because the people had been in the land of Egypt for 430 years, right? So, only the people alive were obviously out in the wilderness and those people had only ever been slaves. So, if God is saying to you, “I choose you to be My special possession. I am setting you aside”, that’s a different identity than, “you are enslaved, you are a slave, you will do what you are told.” And it was gonna take the harshness of the wilderness to get that point across, which is a fair opportunity for us to understand that the same is true in our lives, right? When God comes for us to rescue us from what has enslaved us we may not be on the fast track to the promised land because we will not know what to do when we’re there. It may swallow us completely as would’ve happened to the children of Israel as God will articulate as we go along. Sometimes the path will lead us out of slavery and into the wilderness and we may thrash around and say the same things that the children of Israel did. “Don’t you remember when we were slaves we got to eat cucumbers, we got to have fires around our huts and eat meet. Let’s go back.” Sometimes we’re in the wilderness and we can’t go back, we can’t go anywhere. So, we can only surrender and when we do our identity shifts. So, remember what’s going on here as we go through the law because as we go through the law we’re going to be reading a law book. A law book isn’t the same as like a narrative story, which is far more interesting to listen to, right, because we want to know what happens next, what happens next, what happens next. Whereas with a law book, we’re reading statutes and behaviors and we may look at some of them and go like, “I don't…like I don’t know how to contextualize this into my world.” And we’ve already talked about that, but as we go through the law, look at what the laws are trying to shape. For example, all that we read today was about how people are supposed to behave toward one another and what is supposed to happen when they don’t. We have such laws today. No matter where we live. Like no matter where you are on this planet hearing my voice, there are laws that govern how we are supposed to behave toward one another as a society. This is what is being laid out for a people who have only ever known slavery and the lack of any voice whatsoever in their world, like, completely without rights. And what is being established here is rights and protections and expectations and there will be times where we look at those and say, “but those aren’t like…those are…are those really rights?” Yes, when we’re zooming back to a time where human dignity isn’t really even on the radar, yes, dramatic steps forward are being taken here.
And then the last thing that I want to mention today is from the New Testament because Jesus is…He’s in Jerusalem, the weight of the world is upon his shoulders, like, we’re moving into the passion narrative and Jesus crucifixion and this will be the first-time we experience this this year but, you know, His disciples are looking at the temple complex, marveling at it and Jesus says, “you know, every stone is gonna…like the whole thing will be dismantled”, oh my gosh, which is so symbolic. Obviously, this physically happened in A.D. 70. The Romans absolutely leveled Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. It did happen, but reading this spiritually, looking at it through spiritual eyes what Jesus is saying unbelievably dramatic because what He’s talking about is the dismantling of an entire system and the icon, the temple, the icon that represented that system. And it wouldn’t be the first time it had happened. Now, we’re moving between Testaments here, right, so, like we’re jumping thousands of years and that can get a little disconcerting, but in the Old Testament, we haven’t even got to the Promise Land, so, we certainly haven’t even gotten to the first Temple being built, but that Temple got destroyed too, and these are the repercussions of people walking away from God basically saying, “I don’t want to be set apart as holy do you anymore. I don’t want to be your special possession anymore. I want to serve Baal, like, I want to serve a different God than you. I want to be that God’s special possession”. But this launched Jesus into a discussion on the end times. And, so, as we read the words of Jesus today and He’s talking about some pretty dark situations that are out in front of the human race. And when we come to discussions about the future or the end times we are brushing up against what is called an apocalyptic worldview and that view basically says that the world as we know it is moving towards some type of conclusion, perhaps even catastrophic but on the other side of that something new will be reborn. But the apocalyptic language, even though it’s highly symbolic usually, that kind of brings about unease and even hysteria and fear about what comes next. Like, “how is this gonna happen” and “where are we on the continuum of this” and, you know, like, “how do I prepare”? And Jesus speaks into that, give actual…a practical posture of heart so that we know how we’re supposed to be feeling about this kind of stuff. What Jesus is saying is, “when you see this stuff beginning to happen you should understand that these are the birth pains, like, this is what has to happen to give birth to what comes next. So, don’t be freaked out about it.” And then Jesus says, “the one who endures and bears up under suffering to the end will be saved.” Now, I’m just pointing this out now because this won’t be the last time we talk about an apocalyptic worldview as we go through the New Testament. And we’ll have more to say about what Jesus has to say about the end times as we go forward too, but I’m just pointing this out because we can read today’s reading and go like, “okay, the law, hmmm, yeah, I don’t know, that’s I don’t know what to make of that” and then we’ve got Jesus talking about the end of the world and we’re like, “okay, how do I apply this to my life today”? But Jesus is giving us the counsel to understand that, yes, the world is headed somewhere, it’s headed to a rebirth and anybody who’s ever been a part of childbirth, whether you have actually given birth or whether you are the father of a child and experienced birth, you understand. Like, once the birth is over and the baby’s here, like there is incredible joy and everything is changed, right? There’s new life but getting to that point is quite a bit of work and includes pain and all that goes along with it. So, Jesus is giving us an example that we can understand.
Prayer:
Father, thank You, thank You for bringing us here, thank You for giving us so much context today. Usually when we find ourselves in a season of wilderness, the first thing that we think is, “how can I get out of here and God why did You let me get here in the first place, get me out of here” when the first thing we might need to be thinking about is “God, what have You brought me here to free me from? How am I not utterly depending on You”? because that will be the fastest way out of the wilderness. And from the New Testament, from Your own lips Jesus, You gave us a posture and the beginnings of an understanding for where this story is headed. And, so, the quicker that we can understand that all stories lead to utter dependence on You the better and quicker we’ll be able to relax and through this life looking at the world through Your eyes. So, come Holy Spirit into all of this we ask and we ask these things in the name of Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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Whew…I’m looking at the calendar and it’s just under two weeks before we will be departing for the land of the Bible for our 2019 pilgrimage to the Promise Land. And this is always a community experience. Yes, several buses from all over the world of people will be along for the ride from the community here as we take this journey. But as were there and as we’re kind of traveling through the land of the Bible this becomes a community experience because we’ll talking about it every day, the things that we saw, what we were feeling, connecting the different places that we will visit to the different stories that happen in the Bible. This is a time where, actually, I have noticed over the years that through going to the land of the Bible our community sort of settles in for the year and that once we’re back from Israel, like the community that exists at that point is the community that will go all the way through the year together. So, yes, a bunch of us will we physically there and we’ll be posting pictures to our social media channels several times a day. We’ll be broadcasting live from the Sea of Galilee and we’ll get you information about when that will take place as we get forward…as we get a little closer. And, so, whether you’re going actually, physically, or whether you’re going virtually, we’re all going to the land of the Bible and we’re all gonna immerse ourselves in that land because we’re immersing ourselves in the Bible. And, so kind of understanding the lay of the land is an important part of having context. So, we will certainly talk about that as we get closer, but I’m mentioning it now because where a community and it’s a long way and a lot of people are traveling from very, very far distances. And, so, I’m asking us as a community to begin to raise a canopy of prayer over this pilgrimage, over all of the travel, over all that we will experience and all that we will see, over jet lag, which is a big issue, over safety and travel, there’s a lot of miles to be covered. We literally go as far south as you can go, as far north as you can go, as far east as you can go, and as far west as you can go in the land and it’s breathtaking, but there’s a lot of logistics and significant amount of moving parts to move everyone around the like we are, and we love it but wouldn’t dare try to do it without a canopy of prayer being raised by this community over it. So, let’s begin to pray into that because its coming up and that’s gonna be exciting. It always is. Whether it’s virtual or in person, it’s always exciting because so many of the stories the Bible begin to come alive when you can look at social media posts and see what’s going on and go, “ oh my gosh, I know that story, like I know exactly what is happening here.” So, get ready for that.
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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.