Joshua 7:16-9:2, Luke 16:1-18, Psalms 82:1-8, Proverbs 13:2-3
Today is the 13th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue to move forward. In the Old Testament we are moving our way through the book of Joshua now. So. we’ve finished the Torah or the Pentateuch, and we are reading the story that comes next as the children of Israel cross the Jordan into the promised land and the walls of Jericho have fallen. The next city that was to be conquered was called Ai, but the children of Israel ran away from the people of Ai in defeat. And, so, now it’s been determined that somebody that took things from Jericho that were supposed to not be taken, that were supposed to simply be devoted to destruction. And, so, all of that is getting sorted out. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Joshua chapter 7 verse 16 through 9 verse 2.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the Old Testament today in the book of Joshua it is discovered that this man Aiken has taken treasure, has pillaged in some way the ruins at Jericho and hidden them. And this has caused the Israelites to be defeated in battle, in the next battle with Ai. And, so, all of the discovery is done, right? All of the investigation is done and it’s learned that Aiken is the one guilty for this and they find stuff buried in his tent and then all…all of…everything that has anything to do with Aiken then is destroyed. Then the children of Israel take the Army and go against Ai and defeat Ai. So, the second city is defeated in the conquest of the promised land. So, Ai was the little village and it…it’s ruins still do exist, at least as archaeologically identified. I’ve been to that place. It’s in what we know as the West Bank near Bethel just like the Bible says. It’s…it’s like the site of it…it’s like in a couple people’s backyards in kind is sort of sort of kind of like a neighborhood near…near main road. And, so, we’ve been able to speak to the archaeologists there and film a little bit there. There’s not a whole lot to be able to see that site. It’s sort of like a village up on a hill where this happened. But we could be like, “man, that’s pretty harsh, a harsh way to deal with Aiken. First conquest, all of this stuff going on.” And, so, we can scratch our heads and go like, “that's…that’s a pretty severe punishment.” But if we’re wondering about that or maybe we’re wondering, why the severity and what those implications might be, really, we kind of find them in the gospel of Luke coming out of the lips of Jesus as He concludes a parable. “No one, no servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Okay. So, in the incident with Aiken, this is the first battle for the promised land. And if we pause just for a second and remember what it took to get to the promised land, like a whole generation wandering in the wilderness, like all of the plagues, freeing the people from slavery in Egypt, like all of that. Most of the time that we have been together this year in the Scriptures in the Torah we have been moving toward this place and it took an awful lot to get there. And, so, disobedience and rebellion are going to be introduced with the very first act? Well, that would undo…that would undo the whole thing. That would set a precedence. And, so, essentially a counter precedent was set, because as we saw the giving of the law what is one of the most important things for the people to remember? That there is one God and only one God, that there is no other, and that to disobey God, or to chase after another God is breaking the covenant. So, to the rebel or disobey against God or chase other gods in any form is idolatry and a breaking of the covenant. The children of Israel can hardly get across the Jordan River before we see this begin. And, so, that gives us just a little bit of a context for Aiken and a little bit of understanding from Jesus. And the thing is this is always gonna be a problem for them. This kind of stuff is going to plague the children of Israel. And…and really modify and diminish some of the mission. But we’ll watch that unfold as we continue the journey, not just to the conquest of the…of the promised land, not just like through the book of Joshua but through their entire history. We will…we will see that they are indeed what God called a stiff-necked people, right? Stubborn. But are we any less stiff-necked? That’s a fair question as we move forward. And the stories as we move forward will serve as a mirror to answer that question.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for bringing us here. We are grateful. We love You. We revere You. We thank You for Your word and for all that it is bringing into our lives, all that we are learning, all that is being reconstructed in us, all that is being transformed and renovated. May we stay open to Your work we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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And that’s all for today. I’m Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
This is Alan in New Milford CT. I would like to lift up my brother who called in on April the 8th whose family is suffering from covid virus. You have so many of your family members that you had mentioned my brother and you sounded so beaten, so desperate, so hurt. I can understand as a father how frustrating it must be to care for a family and trying to deal with a disease for which you have no power over. So, I want to join the many thousands and thousands of my brothers and sisters who are gonna pray for you in the next few days. Our dear heavenly Father we thank You for Your great grace and that Your hand can wrap around this world and touch families and loved ones wherever they may be. Father we take authority over this covid virus that has ravished this man’s family and we curse it to its roots. And Father we stand on Your word. There are so many wonderful scriptures that regard healing and it’s by Jesus stripes…stripes he bore upon his back by which we are healed. And Your word tells us I am the Lord thy God who healeth thee. Father we stand on Your word. We just ask You to be merciful and gracious. And God where there may not be adequate medical help for them, we know that You are the chief physician. And, so, we look to You oh God to spare this man’s family and encourage him and strengthen him and God give him hope. Father we all need hope in this time in this day. There’s things going far beyond our own strength to do end to deal with. But God, we thank You that You are a gracious and merciful God. And, so, we bind together and thank You Father in Jesus name. Amen.
Hello DAB family my name is Matthew from the UK. Today is the 8th of April 2021. Let us pray. Father in the name of Jesus I come before you on behalf of my brothers and sisters at the Daily Audio Bible. I come on behalf…I come before you on behalf of Brian and his family. Lord bless them, protect them, and continue to encourage them to continue to deliver the Daily Audio Bible to the entire world. Father, I lift up every member of the Daily Audio family that is calling out to You now for one submission or the other. Father, those who are grieving, those are in pain. My Lord and my God, I commit them to You that Lord that You shine Your face towards them oh God and grant them the desires of their soul. Father, particularly today I lift up Carlos Vallecula from Brooklyn to You whose family have been afflicted with covid. Father You Lord who delivered me from covid You will deliver Carlos and his family from covid. Carlos do not be afraid for the Lord your God is with you. He said He has not given you the spirit of fear but the spirit of power of love and of sound mind. Everyone who came to Jesus received healing, therefore I do clear healings and the name of Jesus to your family. Be strong in Jesus’ name. Amen. Amen.
Hi this is Radiant Rachel and I have a prayer request for my niece Kaylee who some of you might remember has called in and sang some prayers before. She is struggling with a fear of feeling food in her throat. She was choking…well not exactly joking…it was in her esophagus and not her windpipe about a month ago and she’s been taking some steps of progress and eating things like pizza and sandwiches and then she goes back to not wanting to have any solid food. And also, you know, not feeling comfortable with feeling even like cold go down her throat, like cold liquid. So, just please keep her in your prayers as she goes through the healing process of getting comfortable with feeling food in her throat again. And we just Lord we lift Kaylee up to You today. We just pray that she will have no more fear and that she will be able to eat and enjoy food like a regular little 7-year-old. And I just pray that she will be able to use this experience in the future to help someone else who might need some comforting. And we just thank You for healing her and thank You for giving her the nourishment that she needs to grow and develop and thrive in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning DAB family today is April 7th, 2021 and I just want to thank Brian and Jill and the Hardin family for this podcast and the countdown begins for baby China to arrive. And I also want to pray for Emily, and I think her name is Kayla and some of the other DABbers, Victoria Soldier. You guys are heavily in my prayers, even some of you that I can’t remember your names, but God knows your names. And I would also like to ask for prayers for my family, my household. Our house almost caught on fire due to the circuit box being so hot. It burnt. A lot of our things…our stuff that were plugged into the socket and we’re having a hard time getting the insurance to cover those things that we lost. They’re asking for so much but we’re just trying to stay positive and get everything that they want. So, this is __ from Mississippi. Just please keep us lifted up in prayer as well. And thank you so much. Have a blessed day everybody.
My name is Terrell calling from Missouri. I’m really going through it right now. I’m going through a divorce with my wife having to move out of the house pretty soon. We’ve been through it for the last six years and I’m just…I’m ready to do something better within our marriage. I really don’t want to lose my family. I don’t wanna lose my wife. Coming off of Easter this past Sunday, I’m hoping and been praying for a resurrection in my marriage. I want to see a revitalization…revitalizing…I want to revitalize everything that’s going on and just make it all brand new. We’ve hurt each other in the past, nothing physical, but we just want to…I want to move past everything that’s been wrong. I’ve learned so much over the last few years and I just want to be able to apply it to my marriage and do right by my wife and kids. I’m praying to be able to get her back, get my family back and just work through this in a way that God’s called me to be. Thank you.