Numbers 14:1-15:16, Mark 14:53-72, Psalms 53:1-6, Proverbs 11:4
Today is the 10th day of March, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you as we continue the journey, the next step forward into the week, into the Bible, into our lives. And what an honor that we get to do this together with each other around the Global Campfire. So, let’s get to what we’ve come here for which is…which is God’s word. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Today, numbers chapter 14 verse 1 through 15, verse 16.
Commentary:
Okay. We've…we’ve talked about this before. We’re in a season on the Christian calendar called lent and this is a time of fasting and contemplation, meditation. It's…it’s an ancient tradition. And yeah there’s fasting. And yeah maybe it’s, you know, candy bars that you’re fasting or television or whatever, but the point of the fasting is to remove something from our lives that maybe brings us pleasure, and use that time, use that space to contemplate the price of sin, to contemplate our lives, separated from God, to contemplate the state of the world in separation from God. And yes, this is a year where we’re looking for the good, where we’re looking for the kingdom, we’re asking for eyes to see and ears to hear. And yes, it’s all around us. But no, this is not how things were intended to be. And there’s a reason, it’s our rebellion, it’s our willingness to stay separated. And we see that on such clear display today as Jesus is the high priest’s quarters. And yeah, while we were in Israel, like this story is really, really vivid because it’s like less…less than two weeks standing in this place where this story happens and being down in the pit, you know, where Jesus is being held and understanding they’re spitting on Him and smacking Him around and blindfolding Him and asking Him to prophesy who hit Him. Just…I mean the cruelty…the cruelty of it all. And the people perpetrating this cruelty are God’s people, are the people that…that are in charge of the soul care of…of the people, of the Hebrew people. They’re instigating all of this. They’re missing that God was right in front of them. And, so, the high priest is like, “are you…are you the Messiah? Are you the Son of the glorious God?” And Jesus answers them directly, “I am.” And it’s utterly and completely rejected outright, and He is sentenced to die. They missed it so badly and it’s so sad and that’s our story. That’s our story friends. It’s been staring at us in the face and we’ve missed it so badly over the course of our lives in so many instances on so many occasions and it’s so sad. And this season is for that. Like it’s a place in the year to go with that, sit with that, sit with the kinds of things that are actually painful about sin, like the things that we just try to repent and avoid go on. We’re supposed to actually sit here and understand, “this cost something. What kind of love is this? What kind of love is this that we’re talking about, that God would come as a human and be utterly rejected by creation and killed to reveal the state of the world and how backward things are to the way they were intended and to bridge that gap and make a way?” And, so as we go through this story in the Gospel of Mark, and as we go through this season…and believe me…like whether you’re observing lent or not…like, that’s not in the Bible. Nobody’s telling you that you should be doing this. There’s just a reason there are rhythms that have traditionally been in the Christian year and this is one of those, for us to truly, truly appreciate what we’re talking about when we talk about what it took to bring us back, to rescue us from the darkness. And, so, as we go through this story this is an appropriate time to really focus our hearts attention and meditate upon this.
Prayer:
Jesus, as we go into this day, we’re considering You before
the religious leaders who missed and we confess we’ve done the same thing. We’ve
done the same thing many times and we are sorry. We, as Peter, have denied You
more than three times, many more than three times whether in thought or word or
deed. And we sit with that and we understand that this is what separates us and
separation from You is indeed hopeless. And, so, Holy Spirit come. And as we
move through our day help us to continue to remember this story - Jesus before
the high priest, Jesus in the pit tied up waiting for what would come next.
Help us to contemplate this moment and give it the gravity and reverence it is
due. And we pray this in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus our Lord. Amen.
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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.