Deuteronomy 34:1 - Joshua 2:24, Luke 13:22-14:6, Psalms 79:1-13, Proverbs 12:26
Today is the 10th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it’s a…it’s a joy, Its an honor to be here with you today. Today…today’s kind of a big day. Today is Good Friday. It’s a day that we commemorate the death of Jesus our Savior. It’s kind of one of the darkest days on the Christian calendar. It's…it’s a somber day but we’ll talk about that more in a little bit. Today is also the 100th day of the year if you can believe it. 100 days we’ve been journeying together, and in our reading today we will finish the book of Deuteronomy which means we will complete the Torah. And we will also be saying goodbye to somebody that we’ve been journeying with for quite a while, Moses and entering a new book, Joshua and a completely new season, a completely new era. Actually, in the Old Testament like we’ve been mostly in the wilderness since we began this year and now, we’re about to cross over the Jordan into the Promised Land leaving the wilderness behind, which could not be a more appropriate metaphor for Good Friday. And even as we leave the Pentateuch or the Torah, like I mentioned yesterday, we’ve got a brand-new, very very large update to the Daily Audio Bible app. And as we move through this day. If we’ve been kind of checking off the days as listened, as we’ve gone through the year this far, we will…we will complete the first section of the Bible, the Pentateuch, the Torah. And the app will tell us, will show us we’ve achieved that, we’ve moved through that and we can see the achievements, we can see the sections of the Bible that we’re moving through right now and the ones that we will be moving through and the app will now show us kind of where we are on this journey. So, make sure to update that. But we’ll get to that soon enough. Let’s conclude the book of Deuteronomy and then we’ll talk a little bit about the book of Joshua before diving into it for a couple of chapters. But we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Deuteronomy chapter 34.
Introduction to the book of Joshua:
Okay. So, that concludes the book of Deuteronomy. That concludes the Torah or the Pentateuch. And, so, in just a minute we’ll begin the book of Joshua and we’ll see that…well…Joshua kinda picks up right where Deuteronomy leaves off. But We’ll see that God doesn’t waste any time affirming His promise to Joshua and then Joshua doesn’t waste any time preparing the people to do what they been waiting for like almost since the beginning of the Bible. Like finally, here we are with the ability to cross the Jordan River again and enter the Promised Land. And by now, you can imagine the people’s minds, but even in our own minds we’ve been moving toward this place that’s almost mythic, the Promised Land, this land promised to Abraham and Isaac and then Jacob over all of these generations and this hope that was a thread through all of their formation and all of their slave years. I mean this promise of this land and this God that was choosing them and guided the Exodus into their freedom in the wilderness. This was the hope they were holding on to, the hope of this land that would be theirs. So, we are in fact about to leave the wilderness portion of the story and then leave that kind of in the rearview mirror…mirror as we move across the Jordan into the Promised Land. And it’s like we’ve spent a lot of time in the wilderness now because we spend a lot of time in the wilderness in our lives. But the wilderness for the children of Israel, at least as we’ve read through the Bible taught the people several things - who God is, who they are and where they’re going. And that seems to parallel what the wilderness can teach us if we’ll let it. And, so, they’re gonna cross the Jordan, but we’ll soon see that they don't…they don’t just pack up their bags, cross over the Jordan River, move into the land, and just start building cities. They’re gonna have to contend for this promise. They’re going to embark on a mission with God and God is going to instruct them in very counterintuitive ways at times, which is not unlike our own life as we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our choices, in our decisions. And, so, the Bible will continue to read back to us our own lives through the lives of the people who have gone before us. And, so, let’s dive in. Joshua chapters 1 and 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, today is Good Friday. In our reading from Luke today. Jesus talked about entering by the narrow gate. Jesus told us that there’s a narrow path that leads to life that few find and we’re seeking that path. That’s why we’re here every day. But today, today, this 100th day of the year, Good Friday, this is one of the darkest days of the year. A lot of times we might go to a Good Friday service in the evening or whatever and obviously most of these kinds of events, so strange, but have…have moved into the virtual world, or we’ll just kind of blow by it all and just skip to Sunday morning, all the festivities of Easter and all of the pretty dresses, flowers and chocolate and all the things that kinda go with that celebration. And again, this is gonna be a different year, a little different than we’ve ever experienced before. But Good Friday, today is the day that we commemorate the death of Jesus and the way to…to practice this appropriately is that that’s what this day means. It doesn’t mean Sunday. It means today Jesus was nailed to a cross. We can’t even imagine. Like it’s hard to even fathom. Although there are films stuff that depict all of this very well it’s hard to fathom being there having followed Him, like if you put yourself in the position of a disciple, which is what we are friends. If put ourselves in the position of the people who were there, who had walked to Jerusalem with Jesus, who had run away and abandon Him in the garden of Gethsemane, who were sitting around the margins waiting to see what was gonna happen, expecting that something supernatural, something big might happen and that Jesus would emerge victorious even though He had said otherwise. To face the reality of seeing Him beaten so badly, swollen so badly, bruised so awfully, bloodied so horribly, wearing a crown of thorns, but this is…this is the one you put your faith and hope in. And then to watch him be laid down on a crucifix and hammered to the crucifix with nails attaching His body to the cross and then raised up for everyone to see and ridicule. What…I mean…what are the words? How…how…what words can we use to put ourselves in that position? Like, how…how…what…how do you describe the indescribable there and just to hear Him panting, to hear Him gasping, to see blood dripping from the side of His mouth, maybe. To see Him bleeding out, to see Him suffering. Yeah. What do you say to that? And then to hear Him cry out, “my God, why have you forsaken me?” And then to hear him cry out, “it is accomplished. It is finished.” And…and then and then to see his head drop as His Spirit departs, like as He dies. Then He’s just…He’s hanging there. His corpse is just still hanging from the cross. He’s dead and then permissions are granted to have this body. And, so, somebody has to pull the nails out, right? And somebody has to take the body down and wrap it up. And all hope is lost. Like it seems like all is lost here. And because of the festivities of…of the holiday they warp him up and He gets put into this tomb and that’s kinda Good Friday ends because…because Jesus laid in that tomb. And yes, indeed hope is not lost. Like we will go through this process and we will rejoice on Sunday but so often we don’t pause here on Friday and realize He was dead, not somebody we don’t know. Someone who knows us better than we know ourselves died and that death was to eradicate what kept us separate from God, sin. And, so, on this Good Friday we sit with that. We allow that to be a part of what we think about today. We allow these thoughts to begin to fuel gratitude within us that will build us to the moment that we can truly rejoice at the resurrection that we will commemorate on Sunday.
Prayer:
Jesus our worship is to You and You alone. Our gratitude…our hearts are broken in this moment if we will let them be that it had to come to this, but also that You wouldn’t abandon us. You wouldn’t let us go. You loved us. When we were still Your enemies You loved us. So, forgive us. We didn’t know. And so often we’re not paying attention to what we’re doing. We love You and we reach for You, You are our only hope.
Song:
We try, we fail
Do too little too late
We wish we could walk away
We hurt. We’re hurt
Nothing seems to work.
We don’t know what to say
Forgive us
Forgive us.
We know not what we do.
Be with us
Be with us.
We don’t know what to do.
What’s wrong. What’s right.
Hard to see without sight.
Blindly we come to You
Forgive us
Forgive us.
We know not what we do.
Be with us
Be with us.
We don’t know what to do.
We don’t know how to pray here.
stay here.
All we hope is You’re here.
Help us
Seek Justice.
Love Mercy.
Walk humbly, here.
Forgive us
Forgive us.
We know not what we do.
Be with us
Be with us.
We don’t know what to do.