Deuteronomy 21:1-22:30, Luke 9:51-10:12, Psalms 74:1-23, Proverbs 12:11
Today is the 2nd day of April. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you moving into this fourth month of the year together and taking the next step forward into the month, into the week, into the year, and that will lead us back out into the book of Deuteronomy where we’re listening to Moses say the final things that he needs to say, which is in effect a grand review of everything that is happened and all of the laws and statutes that God has woven into the fabric of this new people. So today, Deuteronomy chapter 21 and 22 and we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in the gospel of Luke today, Jesus sent out 72 of his friends in advance, two by two, into areas that he would be coming to minister with instructions and one of those instructions was that sometimes you might just have to shake the dust off and move on. So, rather than a pep talk of their victories and prosperity and money and notoriety talk to him. The sobering truth is they were being sent as lambs among wolves and it’s important to recognize that Jesus always told his friends, disciples, and followers the nature of the work that they were doing in the world and the difficulties of it and the harsh opposition to it that they would face. And yet if we look at our own understanding of Jesus so much of the time what we’re expecting Jesus to do is exactly the opposite of that, it is to clear that path so that we have no opposition and the only victory when Jesus promised when following Him was kind of the opposite. Jesus said the cost would be high. Jesus said the cost would be everything and anyone who began the journey and turned back wasn’t worthy of the kingdom that was being revealed. So, Jesus said, “when you enter any town and they welcome you, eat the things they give you, heal the sick who are here, tell them the kingdom has come near. When you enter any town and they don’t welcome you then go out on the street and tell them that we’re wiping off even the dust of your town that clings to our feet as a witness against you because you should understand the kingdom has come near.” So, according to Jesus, it would be more tolerable for Sodom then for a town like that. So, we see in the ministry of Jesus, God revealing His kingdom to a humanity that had fallen so far and so backward from its created identity that it couldn’t even recognize itself anymore. And we not only see this in the teachings of Jesus, but we see the evidence of this in in the horrible suffering Jesus endured at the very hands of His own creation. So, as disciples of Jesus, I mean, our mission’s no different than that of the 72 friends He commissioned in our reading today. In truth we’re still lambs among wolves. Maybe we’ve come a long way in the past 2000 years in terms of how we behave toward each other or our understandings of how to have mercy upon each other, but humanity’s still largely confused and slumbering and backward, at least according to the teachings of Jesus. And, so, we’ve gotta realize that when we decide to live in the truth of the gospel and really pursue that with all of our hearts so that our pursuits are to eradicate all darkness within us so that we are only light and we’re effectively bringing light into the darkness. And even Jesus…I mean…who is sinless, perfect, full of light knew the difficulty of this and we see the difficulty of this in the life of Jesus. So, we have to understand that if we’re gonna follow Jesus and be His disciples then we’re still doing the same thing, we’re still bringing light into the darkness and we’re sure to face…we’re sure to face some opposition along the way. So, it’s can gonna be about how we respond. If we’re going to respond to confrontation or ridicule, or persecution, or marginalization by trying to strike back and perpetuate the same kind of tactics that are being used against us then we’re not replacing darkness with light, right? We’re simply drawing battle lines, we’re perpetuating the darkness, we’re making the darkness more dark because we’re passing it forward. Sometimes we have to do as Jesus said, we have to shake the dust off and move on knowing that we brought the good news of the kingdom. We don’t have to have the last word. We don’t have to have the last dig. We don’t have to bring the last little bit of darkness into the situation. We can bring light. If the darkness will not receive the light then we can shake the dust and move on.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, we invite You into that because it will take discernment understand when You are telling us this is not your battle, or this is not your place anymore. This is not a situation for you to be in any longer, you have done what I’ve sent you to do, now shake the dust and move on. That’s hard for us. It’s hard for us to know when it’s time. It’s also difficult for us to not perpetuate the darkness by being drawn into a vortex of conflict. These are difficult things and we do not know how to discern and navigate them without your Holy Spirit’s guidance. And, so, we ask for it because You said You would give it to us. Come Holy Spirit. Make us wise, help us to see what’s really going on in the situations that we face in our lives and help us to step aside and away from ourselves and see things as You do, to look behind what it appears is going on to what is real so that we can take ourselves out of the equation and not insert ourselves by making more darkness. Come Holy Spirit and show us when to shake the dust we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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