1 Samuel 15:1-16:23, John 8:1-20, Psalms 110:1-7, Proverbs 15:8-10
Today is the 14th day of May. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is a pleasure as it is every day to be here with you coming out of whatever it is that’s going on in our lives and joining our hearts together around the global campfire and taking the next step forward in the Scriptures, and that will take us back into the book of first Samuel where we’re learning about Israel’s first king and his name is Saul. So, we’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Today first Samuel chapters 15 and 16.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the Gospel of John today Jesus is in the temple in Jerusalem teaching in the complex when the religious leaders…I mean…put a pretty confrontational and humiliating test before him. So, they had caught a woman in the act of adultery. So, in other words, they found a woman in bed entangled with someone other than her husband and they dragged her off and then they thrust her before Jesus, possibly naked, to entrap Him. So, it’s this whole bizarre, strange scene happening in the temple as the religious leaders are kind of like circling the wagons, throwing out the nets. Like, they’re after Jesus at this point, seriously. So, they interrupt Jesus and whatever he was teaching, and interrupt all the people that he was teaching and throw this woman in front of him and they’re like, “teacher, you know, this woman was in bed with somebody, not her husband and our law, the Mosaic law, says we should stone her. And what do you think?” And, so, Jesus stoops down and He’s writing in the dust and everybody’s waiting. And it’s really interesting because Jesus isn’t afraid of like allowing the tension to just sit there, right? So, normally in a confrontational situation what do we do? We usually like strike back in our own defense, right? Maybe even striking back harder. Like, bristling up and showing like, “you want to fight me? This is gonna be a fight.” Jesus just stoops down and starts writing in the dirt. He’s not uncomfortable. Like, He doesn’t feel the need to spout off a bunch of words that are gonna defend Him. He just stoops down and starts writing in the dirt and everybody that He was teaching, all of these elite religious scribes, like all these people who are important, they just have to stand there and wait for…they asked Him a question. And so Jesus is stooping down, just humbling them, making them wait. So, you can just see them back-and-forth, one foot after the other, one foot on the other, they’re just like standing there and like, “what are we supposed to do?” And, so, Jesus stands up and He’s like, “alright, if that’s what the law says, alright, but let the one who never sinned throw the first stone”, right? “Like, the one that actually is worthy of throwing the first…like the one without sin who doesn’t deserve to be stoned as well for something or another, then go ahead.” So He stooped down and started writing in the dust again. And as the Scriptures tell the story, slowly the accusers dispersed and eventually Jesus stood to face the woman and he joined her in her humiliation. “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” And she’s like, “No Lord no. No one condemned me.” Jesus said, “I don’t condemn you either. Go and sin no more.” This is a beautiful, beautiful story and it’s given hope for sinners for thousands of years, hope for me many times. Where all the woman in this story, right, at one point or another, which is what all the scribes and the Pharisees realized was going on, right? They’re slinking away because they are realizing they’re just as guilty, they deserve to be stoned too, we’re all this woman in this story in one way or another. We all have done things that would deserve judgment. And, ironically, this is a very beloved story in the Bible. We like this story so well because we can embrace it for ourselves claiming the grace given to the woman, but we’re often at the same time, while we’re receiving this grace, we’re also playing the role of the religious accusers towards other people, right? All too often we’re willing to drag our brothers and sisters who have fallen in one way or another toward their judgment, right? Like, somehow in our phase, we have gotten to this place where we believe we are the sin sheriffs of the world. And, so, like we spend so much of our time trying to call people out, right, either for their sin or for their doctrine or for whatever. And, so, whether on social media or some other form we’ll drag these people out and try to bring them toward their judgment as we are excusing our own shortcomings and accepting the message of “neither do I condemn you” from Jesus for ourselves. As we’ll learn later on in the book of James and in the writings of Peter, this should not be happening. Jesus did not do that. He entered this woman’s humiliation and set her free. So, who do we think we are? To be Christlike requires that we stop being merciful to ourselves while we are at the same time judging others. Jesus didn’t condemn the woman in this story. He acknowledged her. He called her forward into a better life. So, may we remember that the words, “go and sin no more” apply not only to us in our shortcomings, they apply to everyone. And may we remember that the only one who could’ve cast the first stone in this story was Jesus. He was the only one without sin, and he did not. So, we must be the same if our goal is to become like Jesus anyway.
Prayer:
Jesus, we invite you into this. It’s sad, honestly, to be able to look around and see what we, the body, your body in this world, what we are capable of doing to each other and the ways that we’re willing to segregate away from each other and the ways that we’re willing to break ourselves down into denominations and just what we’ve done because we’ve forgotten some of the core things. Like, the core thing found in this story is that none of us deserve any of this and yet you have given freedom to all of us individually and freely. And you know, we take that freedom and apply it to ourselves and then use that freedom to enslave so many other people by trying to be their sovereign, by trying call them out, by trying to fight the battles as if you need to be defended. We are arrogant people indeed. We have been forgiven so much. We have been blessed so much that we have enough to take it all for granted and we apologize for that. Would you send your Holy Spirit upon us throughout the earth today and allow us to look at our brothers and sisters, whether they are as close to us as living in the same house or is distant to us as someone passing on the street. May we look with compassion, understanding that you do not condemn them. You are inviting them into freedom. And so often we, your people, are standing in the way and this is what we find playing out in your story when you lived here upon this earth as the scribes and Pharisees, as the religious keepers of the law confronted you, we find ourselves becoming the same way when we look at it honestly. And it’s wrong and it’s not going anywhere and it’s not helpful. So, come, Holy Spirit, cleanse us, forgive us, give us the eyes of the kingdom and the ears of the kingdom. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
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And that is it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.