03/06/2020 DAB Transcript

Numbers 6:1-7:89, Mark 12:38-13:13, Psalms 49:1-20, Proverbs 10:27-28

Today is the 6th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian here in the rolling hills of Tennessee and I’m glad that we live when we do, because no matter where you are, no matter what hills or valleys or plains you are…you live in, no matter what continent you’re on, no matter how many oceans away from the rolling hills of Tennessee you are we still can all come around this global campfire and move through the Bible together and be community together and know that we’re never alone. And that is a beautiful, beautiful thing. So, it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we take that next step forward. And we’re working our way through the book of Numbers. And, again, you know, we talked about this in Leviticus, you know, we’re reading an accounting of the setup of a culture mixed in with all of the orders about how they will, you know, how they will order themselves as a culture, as a nomadic culture moving around. And, so, we’re sort of getting all that and there’s a lot of numbers in Numbers. We’re doing a lot accounting. And, so, we can just be like, “gosh. Like, how…how many more days before we get through this?” And we will. We will. What’s happening here is the establishment of the Hebrew people. Like, it’s got a lot of detail and some of its narrative. And, so, we’re reading all the stores and we can really lock into those and some of its instruction and some of its commandment and law and statutes, but this is the origin story and this story actually has value and meaning. It’s very, very important. I mean, there’s plenty of things in the Old Testament that are riveting to our hearts, but this part of the story is an important part of the story because all that’s being formed here, this is the context into which Jesus came. Jesus can’t fully be understood with…like decoupled from His Jewishness, without kind of understanding the culture that He’s speaking too, what He’s saying and why He’s saying it and why that’s causing unrest because like we can read Jesus and be like, “who’s got a problem with any of this? Why do they want to kill him?” But without understanding that backdrop of what they’re trying to protect and what they’re trying to hold onto, then it doesn’t make a lot of sense. So, Number’s matters. Yeah, there’s a bunch of numbers but after these numbers after everything gets set up. Everything…after everything is established, we’re gonna be moving out and we’re gonna begin journeying with them toward the Promise land. So today, we’re reading from the English Standard Version this week by the way. Numbers chapters 6 and 7.

Commentary:

Alright. So, in the book of Numbers today we…we read very repetitively all of the different offerings that are being brought from all the tribes so that the altar could be consecrated. It’s not like they had to do this every day. This…this was the consecration of the altar that was built that was the centerpiece of their culture and the tabernacle along with all the…all the other utensils and the most holy place and the holy of holies in the tabernacle. They’re consecrating the altar. So, it’s all recited you know, and all of these numbers because it’s recounted exactly as they were putting it down historically for themselves. And, yeah, it can be a little tedious but then we broke out of that and it was like the altar is consecrated and we came to the most well-known benediction in the Scriptures, perhaps in the world, “the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.” And according to the Scriptures this puts the name upon the people of Israel, it put the name of God upon them, and God will bless them. A benediction is prayer of blessing. There are many of them in the Bible. The one that I just read to you…you probably have heard it before. It may be pronounced over you in church every Sunday depending on where you go to church, but I want to show you something. So, just…you’re driving, you’re riding on a train, you’re laying in bed, you’re sitting on a chair., whatever you’re doing…whatever you’re doing just try to calm yourself for second. “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace.” Doesn’t that change things. Doesn’t a prayer of blessing spoken over you change the atmosphere. And here…here’s the interesting thing about a prayer of blessing, you can’t pray a prayer of blessing and speak words of cursing at the same person at the same time. If you are blessing them then you are blessing them. I’ve just prayed this prayer of blessing over you. Why don’t you go into your day and pay it forward? Try going through this day and in the encounters that you have, even silently. If you’re going through the grocery store and you’re going through the check-out, and you’ve swiped your card and you’re leaving, if just breathe silently, “may the Lord bless you and keep you.” What if you just went through today blessing everyone. Try it and see what your day looks like. And what about your family? Maybe when we get home from work some cross words are said. There’s all of the fuel for a big fire to ruin the rest of the day. What if you spoke words of blessing instead of cursing? What if just even silently, “the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Those are not fighting words. Those are words of blessing. What about over your children? “The Lord bless you.” Nobody’s stopping you from bringing good into the world. Nobody’s stopping you from being light in the darkness. All we need is to be present and have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Song:

Benediction - Matt Redman

May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord smile on you,
shine His light upon you.
May the Lord lift you,
turn His face towards you.
Give you His peace,
give you His peace.

May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord smile on us,
shine His light upon us.
May the Lord lift us,
turn His face towards us.
Give us His peace,
give us His peace.

Blessed we came to this place today
and blessed now we will go.
In the name of the Father,
the Spirit and the Son.
Blessed we came to this place today
and blessed now we will go.
In the name of the Father,
the Spirit and the Son.

Blessed we came to this place today
and blessed now we will go.
In the name of the Father,
the Spirit and the Son.

May the Lord bless us and keep us.
May the Lord smile on us,
shine His light upon us.
May the Lord lift us,
turn His face towards us.
Give us His peace,
give us His peace.
Go now in peace,
go now in peace.

Go now in peace.
And the blessing of our God,
and the blessing of our God.
Go now in peace
and the blessing of our God.