Leviticus 9:7-10:20, Mark 4:26-5:20, Psalms 37:30-40, Proverbs 10:6-7
Today is the 20th day of February. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian again with a big smile on my face because I am happy, but I am forcing this smile because I am tired. But that’s okay. You know, jet lag is something that dissipates. Greetings from the land of the Bible. We are in Ashdod on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea with the ocean out there and it’s beautiful as always. Ashdod was a Philistine stronghold, one of their five governing cities back in the day. And we haven’t gotten to this point in our reading from the Scriptures we’re we begin to interact with the Philistines, but the Israelites and the Philistines were not always compatible, but our modern Ashdod is a coastal city and this is where we all gathered and got to know each other a bit last night and kind of just interact a little. Excitement is high. Fatigue is fairly high. Think we’re gonna be running largely on adrenaline today but that makes for a good night’s sleep tonight and that’s what we need. So, today we’ll be heading out from Ashdod and heading south into the wilderness and I’ll share that story tomorrow. But today, we need to get into the Scriptures and take the next step forward. That will lead us back into the book of Leviticus. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Leviticus 9:7 through 10:20.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Matthew yesterday, Jesus used agricultural examples, seed and soil and types of soil and what happens to the seed based on what type of soil that it’s planted in. And, so, as we came into today’s reading from the gospel of Mark we find that Jesus wasn’t done with that discussion. He just kind of expanded it to the whole of God’s kingdom. And the example He used was how a farmer will go out and plant at the right time and then, you know, he’ll wake up and go to sleep and wake up and go to sleep and wake up and go to sleep, days will pass, even months will pass, both day and night and the plant will grow. The crop will grow even though the farmer doesn’t have any control over it and has to patiently wait. And then Jesus also compared the kingdom of heaven to a tiny mustard seed, right? It’s the smallest of all seeds He said but then it becomes the largest of the plants in the field. So, Jesus chose these metaphors for reason and in part it would be because his hearers would understand the story but they are no less poignant for us today at all because, in effect Jesus is telling us that the kingdom of heaven is happening all the time, right, day and night, even while the farmer doesn’t know how it’s happening it is happening, right? And Jesus also says that the kingdom of heaven is a collaboration, right seed and soil and although it begins small and grows and spreads and flourishes and gives life as we patiently cultivate and participate in the harvest. So, the kingdom is everywhere, and the kingdom is now. And even though we’re waiting for the fullness of the harvest, right, the fullness of God’s kingdom, we are supposed to be diligent in planting seeds and nurturing the growth and harvesting the fruit. And it’s not just out facing into the world, like we need to plant good seeds of good behavior and plant little witnesses of Jesus all over the place, although that we are. It’s also supposed to be as near as our own heart. We have to consider what’s being planted inside of us, because whatever it is that’s what’s going to grow up around us and we don’t want to have a lot of weeds planted in our lives and then they grow up without us even knowing how their growing up around us. We want to be good soil.
Prayer:
Father, we acknowledge all of this and we invite Your Holy Spirit to come. This is a year where we are supposed to maintain, which means we are supposed to do maintenance. And in so many ways this is exactly what You’re talking about when we’re talking about being good soil and tending a garden and seeing the kingdom flourish, not only with in us, but around us everywhere we go. And we will not be able to maintain or cultivate this without Your Holy Spirit and we won’t be able to plant these good seeds or allow them to be planted in our lives if we aren’t good soil. So, come Holy Spirit, show us the thorny places, show us the rocky places, show us the stubborn places that need to become good soil. As we reclaim these stony and thorny places in our lives and cultivate good soil within them, then the garden of our heart is expanding, and we have more room for more harvest. So, come Holy Spirit we pray. In the mighty name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And what’s going on around here is that our journey, our pilgrimage throughout the land of the Bible, well, it kinda began last night at our dinner but we’ll all be loading up on the buses and going and seeing things today and changing geography. We will end up quite a ways south of where we are right now. We’re on the Mediterranean coast. So, we are, well, we’re essentially as westward as you can go in the land of the Bible because there’s an ocean there, there’s nowhere else to go. But we will be heading to the southernmost point of Israel today as we experience the wilderness. And we’ll be posting pictures, videos, anything that we can to kind of keep this an interactive process as it’s happening. So, certainly follow Daily Audio Bible on all the social media channels. You can find them at dailyaudiobible.com in the Community section. And yeah, just asking for your prayers. This is kind of our inauguration day where we’re just kind of getting into a new rhythm of traveling around the way that we will be and experiencing the land the way that we will be and also getting to know each other the way that we will be over the next couple of weeks. So, thank you for your prayers.
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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.