Exodus 10:1-12:13, Matthew 20:1-28, Psalms 25:1-15, Proverbs 6:6-11
Today is the 30th day of January, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today on the eve of the last day of the first month of the new decade 2020. It’s great to be here with you today to take that next step forward. And in the book of Exodus, which is what we have settled into there is a showdown happening between God the most-high, and…and the Pharaoh of Egypt. And the battle is over God’s people who have been enslaved in Egypt. He wants them out and Pharaoh who thinks he’s a God himself isn’t having any of it, but he’s learning some pretty hard lessons in the process. So, we’re reading from the Evangelical Heritage Version this week. Exodus chapter 10 verse 1 through 12 verse 13.
Commentary:
Okay. In the book of Matthew Jesus continues to talk and reveal the kingdom of God. His ministry is centered around this revelation and the interesting thing about the revelation is that it is a different kind of kingdom than anyone is expecting. They are expecting a kingdom that is rooted in the physical world that can be experienced by the senses, right? One in which a great battle and great destruction and lots of blood of the enemies is involved. And Jesus is indeed announcing the kingdom of heaven, but it’s not that. It’s a totally different thing than that. It’s something that is happening now if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. And, so, Jesus gave us another piece of what that looks like today. And, so, He tells a story as He’s prone to do as we’ve already explored. “Indeed, the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.” That’s how Jesus began, and He tells a story of how He hired some workers in the morning and a then, you know, He hired some workers midday and after launch and in the afternoon and getting toward the end of the day with only one hour left to work He hired more workers and they all went into the field. And, so, when everybody lines up to get paid, He starts with the people who got in last and he gives them a denarius, a day’s wage, the agreed-upon days wage from the people who started first. And, so, when He gets to the people that had worked all day, they’re obviously expecting maybe something a little more than what they had agreed to. But at the end of it He gives them what they agreed to, like everybody got the same, everybody got paid. Of course, this angered the ones who felt as if they deserved more. They had agreed to the terms and they were given exactly what they had agreed to but as they compared themselves to others, they got a sense of entitlement that made them feel as if they deserved more. And the response of the master says it all. “Are you envious because I am generous? In the same way the last will be first and the first last.” So, what can we glean here about God’s kingdom from what Jesus is saying? We can say that those who believe that they are owed something or deserve something from God because they have earned somehow something from God will get what they deserved and get it last. Those who realize that they are unspeakably fortunate just to be here at all can appreciate the value of what they’ve been given. Everyone gets the same. Nobody’s better. Nobody deserves more. Nobody deserves more spotlight. And why would this be? Because we’re one body with one head. Nobody can say to anybody else, “I don’t need you.” That’s not true. God’s kingdom is not a kingdom of comparison and selfishness. And as we explore this kingdom that we are a part of and that is happening through the lips of Jesus we are being awakened. We are learning. We are becoming aware. But we can see that Jesus disciples were not completely aware either. After this Story takes place, Jesus is continuing his journey to Jerusalem and this isn’that t for a visit, this…this is…this is Jesus going to die. And, so, He pulls His disciples together on this walk and tells them that He’s going to die, that He’s going to be arrested and turned over to the Gentiles and killed and that He’s gonna come back. And, I mean, just imagine that you had that kind of foreknowledge about your own life. Imagine you knew that…that you’re gona die in a couple of days and you’re trying to kind of comfort everybody and share things. And, so, you say what you’ve gotta say and then a couple of your kids come to you and say, “hey since you’re gonna die can I have your car?” I mean that would be like so out of place, so bizarre. And yet that’s essentially what happened to Jesus. He’s telling His friends, “I’m gonna die.” And He unpacks all of that and then they keep walking and two of Jesus disciples and their mom come home to talk to Jesus and the mom…it’s the mom, she's…she’s doing the requesting. Promise that in your kingdom these two sons of mine may sit one on your right hand and one on your left-hand. So, I’m not pointing out that piece of the story to bring us to some kind of application to our lives or some ways to think about this, I’m just pointing out the disconnect. Here we have the son of the living most-high God on planet Earth operating in a kingdom that is being revealed and living a life after a human fashion but completely whole and He’s unpacking all of these parables, He’s teaching privately of the kingdom. And now they’re on their way to His death and this is how disconnected it is, “promise that I get a throne next to your throne. And we can often find that that's…that’s really the motives, that’s really what we’re after is what we want. Like, we’re…we’re in this whole faith thing to get blessed, like to get stuff but if Jesus hasn't…Jesus hasn’t made it clear enough yet, God’s kingdom isn’t a kingdom of stuff. And we can be just as oblivious as Zebedee’s sons sometimes.
Prayer:
Father we thank You for Your word, we thank You for another day to be in Your word, we thank You for what Your word is revealing to us and we thank You that as we do this day by day over and over coming back day after day, changes are happening within us and we are so open to it, we welcome it. We invite You fully to lead us into all truth. Come, Holy Spirit we pray in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
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