Numbers 26:1-51, Luke 2:36-52, Psalms 60:1-12, Proverbs 11:15
Today is the 17th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we move through the center of our week right here at the center of our month. It’s been quite a week. We’re in the gospel of Luke. And, so, this week we read of the coming of John the Baptist. we read of the birth of Jesus. And in the book of Numbers, we have read the story of Balaam and Balak and have applied that to our lives. So, let’s take the next step forward. We’re reading from the God’s Word translation this week. Numbers chapter 26 versus 1 through 51.
Commentary:
Okay. I think it was the day before yesterday in the gospel of Luke that we read of John the Baptist or John the one that would grow to be John the Baptist of the story surrounding his birth. And we did that in the context of saying like John didn’t just show up magically at the Jordan River and everybody just went down to see the crazy man walking in out of the desert, that there was a story surrounding his life that people would have known and watched as he grew up. And then even as he went into the wilderness, when he came back out of the wilderness to the Jordan River calling people to repentance there was a story around him. Everybody was looking to see what would become of him and then they realized he was a prophet of God. We have similar things with Jesus. Obviously, the angelic visitations letting the shepherds know and then the following of the star. Like all of those things would announce the arrival of the Savior, certainly. So, like with the shepherds, you can only imagine how many people they told of what they had seen. Whether they were believed or not, the story began to spread. You can only imagine the wise men making their journey and then returning back after having seen the child and spreading the word. Like, the story is beginning to get out. And then Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God and offer the appropriate sacrifices and there’s prophetic utterances over Him. This is happening in the temple complex. People would see this, wonder about it, talk about it. Maybe it wouldn’t spread all over the nation to every far-reach, but it will be something that was talked about. And, so, Jesus with his family, they would make an annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem. So, Jesus was familiar enough with the temple. And, so, it wouldn’t be like a terrible stretch into the realm of fantasy, and believe me, plenty in the realm of fantasy around Jesus Christ. But it wouldn’t be here in the realm of fantasy to say, okay annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem for Passover was a part of the story of Jesus upbringing. We get that from the Gospels. So, if you were visiting the temple complex on an annual basis it’s not a stretch that some of the people who were around Him as an infant, would begin to see Him become a toddler, would begin to see Him growing up and know who He was. But then we have this episode where Jesus is 12 years old, and we read this today where they’ve done exactly that. They’ve gone to Jerusalem for the Passover and then they’ve left. And that’s 90 miles roughly on foot from Jerusalem back to the Galilee near…near Nazareth. So, they would travel in caravans for safety, but also, it’s a long way. So, they would travel in caravans. And, so, they assume Jesus was among them when He wasn’t. That right there, like that part of the story if we enter into it as a parent, that’s a terrifying to thing, that’s a terrifying thing to think that you’ve lost your kid in a major metropolitan world center. And, you know, you discover this when you’re a day’s journey just to get back, just to start looking. So, they are several days removed from Jesus, at least five days removed from Jesus when they end up finding Him because they traveled a day away from Jerusalem and they travel a day back to Jerusalem and it took them three more days to find Jesus in the temple. So, you know, they’ve gotta be freaking out. Nevertheless, they find Jesus in the temple complex and He’s learning and He’s being taught and He’s asking questions and He’s answering questions and He is amazing. Like He is absolutely getting the attention of the rabbis who are there in Jerusalem. This would be the elite leaders and teachers who work in the temple of God and He’s answering them adequately to the point that they’re stunned by Him. Of course, as the story goes when Jesus’ parents find Him, they ask Him why He did this to them. And He says I must be about my father’s business, but the next thing you know, He submits to them, they go back to Nazareth. This is not the kind of thing that would be forgotten. Like, if a…a kid is speaking among the scholars and speaking coherently and asking important questions and…and giving answers and perspectives in a way that is amazing or stunning to the elite leaders, to the scholars of the Torah, then this is not something that is gonna just be forgotten. This is something that they would’ve been talking about for days after the fact and wondering similar things as they were wondering about John. What’s gonna become of this kid? Something special is happening. My point here isn’t like a theological point or something that we gotta hold up and apply to our lives. It’s the context here. It’s just having some sense of a back story. When Jesus began His ministry and began to speak with authority the Scriptures tell the people found that to be amazing, that He was amazing, that He was stunning, that what He said was not like what anybody else was saying. He spoke with authority. He spoke as if He knew what He was talking about. So, when the word spread that there was this rabbi up in Galilee, this person doing this kind of teaching, eventually word would’ve been like, what…what’s His name? Well, His name was Jesus. Dots would’ve been connecting. That’s that kid. That’s that kid that was up here in the temple when His parents left Him in Jerusalem. That’s that kid. And we get clues about this from the…the other gospel narratives, that Jesus began His ministry and was beginning to make waves. Rabbis, people traveled all the way from Jerusalem. Again, they walked 90 miles to hear Him. And we can see through the Gospels that the people who were making that kind of trek, like the scholars, like the elite, they were not antagonistic toward Jesus at first. It…it wasn’t a situation where right from the get-go they wanted Him dead. They were coming to check Him out. It took a while for that enmity to grow, and it mostly came out of Jesus calling the truth, exposing the darkness, especially among the religious. That definitely got Jesus on the wrong side…well…on the wrong side of the law, you might say. Because in the end He was condemned as a blasphemer, a lawbreaker. So, let’s just understand that. Jesus wasn’t born, and then He disappeared and then He just reappeared like some kind of magical apparition with magical powers and then people flocked to Him and nobody knew what was going on. This was an ongoing thing. And to look into this and just have a little bit of a context, this is kind of the only way that we get a bit of context about Jesus early life. There’s very…just very, very little in the Gospels between His birth and the beginning of His ministry. So, for example, this account of…well…everything that we’ve read here about Jesus in the temple when He’s an infant and then…then they go back to Nazareth. That is in the gospel of Luke, whereas in the Gospel of Matthew that also has an emphasis, an infancy narrative. They…they end up fleeing to Egypt for a season. And, so, when you think about some of the stuff, you’re like, “well man that would be so cool to…like what was that story? Like, what happened there?” And we don’t have all of that. There are ancient writings about it that date way back. These are the infancy Gospels. These are apocryphal writings that were not canonized. They are not part of Scripture. They’re just part of the early early stories in the church. And, so, obviously the story of Jesus going to Egypt is important to the…like those who are in the Coptic church, which is largely Egyptian. So there…there are definitely writings with stories in them about Jesus early life and His journey to Egypt and really, really interesting fanciful things but not contained in the canon of Scripture. I say all that just to simply say that, yeah, we get Jesus birth then we kind of skip to Jesus adulthood and that’s where the focus is and we wonder, “what was it like for Him to grow up?” And, so, we look into the Gospels and like, well here’s kinda what we can say, here’s what we can see from the gospel narratives that would allow us to…to understand that Jesus’ development wouldn’t have been completely unknown any more than John’s development would’ve been completely unknown. But also, that there’s a lot that we don’t know. But there’s a lot that we do. And isn’t that our desire, isn’t that our hearts’ desire, to know more. Not just to know more about, but to no more with.
Prayer:
Jesus, we invite You into that. It is deeply interesting and fascinating to learn of You because we’re learning what it looks like to be truly human. When we look at You, we’re looking at what it looks like for the most-high God to be willing to become one of His creation to identify with us so that we could understand. And the truth is we’ve missed so much of it but we’re so deeply grateful that we have this life to get to know You, deeply, from the Scriptures and deeply because we’re in relationship. And. so, Jesus, help us to learn of You, what we need to learn of You. We pray in Your precious name. 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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning DAB family I hope you’re all having a blessed blessed Sunday. I just thank God for all your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing ministry. May God continue to add many many more years to this amazing ministry. In the UK today is Mother’s Day and I just wanted to say happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful mothers and carers to young children. I lost my mother on the 23rd of October 2016. She was a woman of faith. She really loved God. She was my rock, the most loving, softest mother I could have ever asked for. So, a day like this normally makes me feel quite sad, quite low, quite lonely. And also, sometimes it feels as if people around me forget my pain and how a day like this makes me really feel. But my reassurance is that I know that my mother is in heaven where is, you know, that is a place that’s filled with laughter and praise to the Almighty. You’ll probably hear this later, but I just want to ask for prayers for God’s comfort for me during this time. I also want to say a prayer for all those who have lost mothers, for the Lord to give you strength. May He comfort you especially a day filled with mixed emotions. May His love provide you with confirmation that God will never leave you nor forsake you. Amen. And this is Sarah from London. God bless you all. Stay blessed.
Hello this is Charlene from Akron OH first time caller. I had started listening to DAB a couple years ago and just each year I would get distracted, and I would just fall away, and I just wouldn’t see it through, but this year so far has been going so much better and I just really want to stick with it. I was calling to reach out to D from Pennsylvania whose son is moving to California just let her know that I had a son that went to school and hasn’t been home since he’s 18 he’s down 26 and he lives in Texas. And while it’s getting easier there’s always that longing to have him home, but it does get better, and they do learn to live and be on their own and…but I just want to let you know you’ll be in my prayers. And I also wanted to ask for prayer for my oldest one period his wife. She is facing a hysterectomy on April 9th and I just want to pray that this is really the right thing. They do not have any children and obviously this would make it permanent not to be able to have any children of their own. I know adoption is an option. This is also my first born and he was saved when he was five years old and had stayed with his faith all the way through college, taught Bible studies, and all kinds of stuff. And then just a little bit before he moved out of the house, he was just sharing how he was just doubting things how he’s letting it ride out. And he’s never fully committed to coming back and he’s very respectful, loves family. And I just want prayer for them. And I don’t know if this is something that maybe God is using to bring him and his wife to Him and make their relationship with Him the strongest it could be. Well, I’m out of time. Thank you so much.
Hello everyone, this is Rachel from Oregon. I’m actually going to change my name to Redeemed Rachel. I just wanna ask for a couple prayers. First of all, the pastor and…and his wife of our church are being called to be missionaries in Norway and it’s just such an amazing thing that God has called them to do and they are being obedient in it, but they are also super amazing people who have really stewarded our church so well and taught so many people how to walk in line with the word of God and just what God’s love really looks like. And I’ve never grown more than being at this church with them as pastors. So, I know a lot of people are having a hard time with it in my church and I just ask that you pray, that God will bring along the next right person and bring our body over here peace through this time of transition and adjusting to whoever does come along. And also, I ask prayer for my family because we are making a cross country move, totally uprooting. I have to say a lot of goodbyes over here which is going to be really hard and I’m going to a place I’ve never been to and don’t know much about but I am…I’m really excited about it but it is very nerve wracking. I have a couple months to get rid of all this stuff in our apartment and pack up we’re taking and clean up our apartment and just get everything in…in order and I’m also nervous about finding a good church over there because until the one I’m at right now I’ve only been in bad churches. So, just please pray for my family and bring us peace and let us stay in God’s will. Thank you.
Hi everyone, this is Jeanette from Denmark. I’m calling for prayer against a tumor which has developed in the left stump of my arm under the elbow. I’ve had cancer before about 16 years ago and it came back under the stress of covid. And I am so blessed right now to be able to speak the language here where I live and to participate in the local church. And I thank God so much for what He’s taught me through this walk of a totally different life of where I come from in the states. I bless his name because he has blessed me with a dependent…a sense of dependency upon Him. And I know that He has much more in store. I want to share about healing and about the love of Father God here and help the church to grow here. And I thank him for blessing my family with peace of mind in this time and inspiring us with what to do and holding us tight in these days. And I pray He does the same for so many of you. Thank you for the DAB and the time we spend together every day. And [singing starts] may the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face to shine upon you because He loves you, He is your Father He is a wonderful Father [singing stops]. Amen. Thank you.
Hello DABbers, it’s your girl Val here in Vegas. Oh my gosh y'all. This makes one year. Whoo…i got to get through this call! It’s been one year since I called in and asked for help. I was sitting alone in the hospital in a zero-gravity room believing the lies of the enemy that God was mad at me with double pneumonia. You guys prayed me…well…you prayed me out of that situation, but man you did so much more than that. I’m literally about to celebrate on April 6th a year at my dream job. My health is literally better than it’s been in quite some time. I can’t even name in the two minutes that I have all the blessings in this last year. I’ve grown closer to my family. I’ve been more prayerful. I understand now that God wasn’t mad at me then and he’s not mad at me now. And I say all this to say to anybody that is just at that edge where you feel like you want to give up, don’t! Please don’t. Stand strong. Call in. Know that this family is praying for you. We believe in you. We are people that love the Lord. We want to pray for you, and we want you to call in and we want to hear your words of encouragement. Those praise reports warm my heart. I love you guys. Please hold on.