Joshua 11:1-12:24, Luke 17:11-37, Psalms 84:1-12, Proverbs 13:5-6
Today is April 15th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you. I guess this would be the dead center of this fourth month of the year. Great to be here with you in the middle of it all. Ready to take the next step forward that will…that…well…will tip us into the downside of the month and we’ll be in the back half. So, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week. Joshua chapters 11 and 12 today.
Commentary.
Alright. So, in the gospel of Luke today we encountered a couple of…of different stories, one in which Jesus explains some very profound things about the kingdom of God. But before we got into that there was a story of 10 men with leprosy who were crying out to Jesus and He tells them to go show themselves to the priest. And on the way they realize that their clean. And, so, they continue on to show themselves to the priest except for one of them. Nine of them continued onto the priest and one of them returned and fell down before Jesus to thank him. That right there is enough. Like that right there gives us plenty to consider about gratefulness and how often…how often the Lord rescues us, and we just keep moving on, like it’s owed to us or something. We just keep moving on with a quick thank you, whereas this person returns to Jesus from being declared well. He returns to Jesus and falls before Him to give him gratitude. That’s quite a different posture than we carry within ourselves most of the time because God rescues us every day in one way or another if we’re paying attention. But there’s a very intriguing feature in this story. He…so…so, this one guy comes back and then I quote from the Bible, “he fell with his face to the ground at Jesus feet and thanked him. Now, he was a Samaritan.” Every year at one point or another…I mean…we find Samaritans showing up in different gospel stories. Like Jesus with the woman at the well. She’s a Samaritan. Or the story of a man walking to Jericho from Jerusalem who gets ambushed and beaten up and stripped of his clothes and left for dead and then a priest walks by and the other side, and a…a…a scribe walks by on the other side of the road and then a Samaritan comes along and takes care of this person and pays his medical bills. Or in the story we’re reading right now, the one that returns to Jesus cleansed from leprosy happens to be a Samaritan. What’s being communicated here is also quite profound. For a Samaritan to be a hero of a story, that’s very very countercultural and unusual in the culture of Jesus time among the Hebrew people. Or for a Samaritan to be the one out of the 10 people who were healed come back, that's…that’s social commentary. We just kind of blow by it, like their the Jebusites, the Canaanites, the Hivites and the Samaritans, like they’re just other people, but it has no specific resonance with us a lot of the time. So, who are the Samaritans? Why are they not liked very well? Why are they sort of considered outsiders or different, not accepted by Hebrew people? The truth is that we will learn that story, like we’ll learn that story as we continue reading through the Bible, but that story won’t begin to actually materialize and make sense until we get to the era of the Kings of Israel. But the time at which we find Samaritans in stories that have meaning, we find those in the Gospels with Jesus ministry. So, kinda gotta tell the story. The story we’re gonna read, but a story that will help us remember when we do read it.
So, right now we have just…like we’re in the book of Joshua. So, we’ve crossed the Jordan River and all of the people of the lands are attacking Israel left and right and building coalitions and just trying to push them back across the Jordan River. They just keep winning. And, so, now they have defeated the land and we will continue to watch them settle the land and then there will be a period after this once things are settled that we will enter a time known as the time of the judges and we will read about the judges and that is a time of kind of decline. And we’ll watch all that, we’ll see all this happen. And then the people decide they want a King. This is not what God wants. He is their king. He is their portion, God in the midst of them all. But they still want a king and they’re…they’re adamant about it, right? And, so, they get a king, his name is Saul. We’re gonna learn a lot about ourselves with Saul. Then another king arises, his name is David. We’ll find all kinds of interaction between Saul and David and David becoming King. And there’s all kinds of stuff for us to learn about ourselves there too. David then has a son. His name is Solomon. Solomon, king Solomon brings Israel…the Israel…the ancient Israel that we’re reading about in the Scriptures, he brings them to the apex of their civilization where they look like the chosen people in the promised land. It looks like that for a brief moment but then Solomon dies, and he has a son in his name is Rehoboam. Rehoboam essentially promises to be much more difficult of a king, much harder with much more requirements on the people than his father had been. So, 10 of the tribes, right? We’re traveling along with the 12 tribes of Israel. 10 of the tribes rebel against King Rehoboam and abandon king Rehoboam declaring their own king and their own king’s name will be Jeroboam. Jeroboam will lead those 10 northern tribes into idolatry. We’ll see all that unfold before our eyes. But that is a split in the kingdom. And, so, the northern 10 tribes that abandon Rehoboam they become known as the kingdom of Israel, whereas the tribes including the city of Jerusalem, this is the kingdom of Judah. So, this one people who are brothers and sisters, like literally family, divide themselves into two different nations. In the north King Jeroboam leads the people into idolatry. It’s sort of a hybrid. They have a lot of the same Hebrew customs. They believe in the God that saved them from Egypt. It just looks more like a golden calf then. And they would call it Yahweh. And it’s just have kind of like a real hybrid sort of messed up mingling of traditions. So, the people in the South in the kingdom of Judah. They have Jerusalem. They have all of the clergy, right, the Sanhedrin there and God’s temple in Jerusalem. And, so, they look at what’s going on in the north as apostasy or heresy, like they’re not worshiping God correctly. And, so, they begin to kinda look down upon them. Eventually a capital city to rival Jerusalem is made in the northern kingdom and the capital city to rival Jerusalem was known as Samaria, which is now where we begin to find the word Samaritan. But what happens as will see from the narrative in the Bible, what happens is that the Assyrian Empire eventually invades and is successful at conquering the northern kingdom of Israel. So, the Assyrian Empire defeats those 10 tribes. And as was the case in empire building at that time the people were deported. They were taken into exile. They were moved into another part of the Empire, another conquered part of the Empire. They were moved into live in in a new part of the Empire and the emptied out land of the northern kingdom of Israel was repopulated with other conquered people. So, they’re just moving people around so that as the generations pass, people forget what was their ancestral homeland and they just become people of the Empire, Assyrians, they’re just assimilated. That’s actually what happens with the 10 northern tribes. After they’re conquered, they disappear. They are never cohesive tribes ever again. They have never been cohesive tribes ever again. They were assimilated into the Assyrian Empire and then began to just disappear, just as disappear into the people. Okay. So, the northern tribes have been moved out, new people have been moved in, there’s a remnant of old northern tribes then still in the land and it’s all mixed up, and finally they send to the Empire and say, “you gotta send a priest or something to this land. We don’t know how to worship the gods of the land. And, so, we keep getting eaten up by animals. And, so, a priest of God comes back to the northern kingdom, and now there’s all of these new people who worship all of these different gods and being taught how to worship Yahweh. But the’re being taught how to worship Yahweh in a way that was considered a perverted way in the first place. And the capital city is Samaria, and so you have Samaritans, Samaritans who are trying to worship the one true God but have very, very different ways of doing it and very different customs then people in Jerusalem. And, so, they’re kind of looked down on. They’re not really worshipers of God. So, like they’re looked down on religiously but they’re also a mixed people, not God’s chosen pure people. So, they just live in this land. And, so, they’re considered untrustworthy, maybe dirty, maybe lazy, the kinds of stereotypes that you see being attached to people around the world who are being systematically marginalized and looked down upon. So, for these people who are looked at in this way to show up in the Gospels as respectable, upstanding…like people who end up doing the things that weren’t done. For example, the priest in the story of the man who was beaten on the side of the road, right? He’s the clergy and he didn’t help, or the scribe didn’t help. And there’s ways to explain this. Like, Jewish custom is they thought he was dead, and you shouldn’t touch a dead body, or you become unclean. And, so, of course they moved to the other side of the road. That’s not really the point in Jesus’ story. Like He doesn't…He doesn’t give them that out. He just says they move aside on the other side of the road and then…then the Samaritan comes along and pays the guy’s medical bills and nurses him back to health. For that to be happening is a bit of social commentary about who it is we’re looking down on and why we might be looking down on them. So, there’s plenty there that still…like, there’s plenty there to apply to our lives in the modern world. We leave that story, and the Pharisees ask Jesus specifically when the kingdom of God is coming. And who doesn’t want the answer to that question right? We would like the answer to that question ourselves, right? When is that gonna happen? And that’s where this really disruptive answer comes in that is like a bombshell, like a mic drop. Like it should be disruptive until this very day. It should…I mean the implications are huge. Jesus’ answer to the question, “when is the kingdom of God coming” is this, and I quote Jesus, “the kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed nor will they say look, here it is or there. For indeed the kingdom of God is in your midst.” In other words, this kingdom you are waiting for, this one that you’re looking for a Messiah to come and lead you into with a military overthrow of the Roman Empire, they’re going to push the Romans into the sea and take this land back over, this idea that that’s what’s going to happen in order to reestablish the kingdom of God, that’s not gonna happen. The kingdom of God is already happening. So, this is in the Bible. So, we can go read this every day but functionally this is rarely how we see things. Usually we are looking through the same type of lens that the ancient Hebrew people were looking at when they were considering whether or not Jesus was the Messiah. They’re looking for something in particular. So, we…we are looking for something in particular that is very similar to what they were looking for. We want Jesus to come and invade the earth beat up the bad guys and throw the evil out and establish the kingdom of God, when what Jesus is saying is it’s already underway. Are you not seeing this? Are you not hearing this? It’s already happening. You’re invited to participate. That changes the dynamic considerably from a person waiting for something to happen to a person participating in what is already happening. That would…I mean…if we’re waiting for…waiting for Jesus to do whatever Jesus is going to do and we just wait our whole lives then didn’t we miss participating in what He was doing? And that’s the kind of clarion call here. We’re…we’re not waiting to get busy the harvest is already ripe. The laborers are few. And then the disciples, they…they ask at the end of this discourse, they ask Jesus, “like, where is this gonna happen? Like, essentially, like how can we know this? Where is this gonna be?” And then Jesus says something really interesting, “where the dead body is there the vultures will gather.” In other words, you could see the signs if you were looking for them. You would be able to…like in this case, you’ll be able to smell it. So, that’s interesting because that’s another sense. We see Jesus talking about eyes to see and ears to hear. And now “where where the dead body is there the vultures will gather.” Like you can you can see the signs or maybe…maybe a better way to say it is you can sense what’s going on if you’re paying attention, if that is what you want to see or hear, if that is what you are looking for. If you seek you will find. How much of today would change if we understood that the kingdom is underway? It is within us it is among us all. All we need is eyes to see and ears to hear. How would that change our lives if we stopped waiting for something to happen and understood that it is happening. And we can sense what’s happening when we look for the movement of love in this world because God is love. And Jesus told us we will be known by our love. This is what we need eyes to see and ears to hear and a nose to smell. This is what we need to sense. This is where the kingdom is at work. So, all of the divisiveness that’s all over the place, all the fighting and rhetoric that has just permeated societies for…well…definitely for the last few years, but it’s always been going on, but it seems like things have amped up several notches. All of that. We keep looking for the kingdom in those things, and it can’t be found there. That’s not eyes to see or ears to hear. That’s the wrong fight. The true battle is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as if they were us as ourselves.
Prayer:
Jesus, there’s plenty here…plenty of context here, plenty to consider here, plenty to examine here about our own lives and postures and motivations and what it is our expectations are. So, we invite Your Holy Spirit to reprioritize and continue to transform and rearrange us that our lives align with what You’re doing in this world. And we can know…we don’t have to be confused about that. We have to simply be open to love and forgiveness and patience and kindness and all of the fruits of the spirit. These things, beginning to blossom and bloom in our lives create a harvest so that our lives…we’re not confused about what we’re doing. We know exactly what we’re doing. We’re revealing Your kingdom through our love as we become living sacrifices and allow Your life to touch this world through us. Come Holy Spirit. Help us to realize what an invitation this is. We pray this in the name of Jesus. 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:
Hi, my name is Alec and I’m in Fort Worth TX. I’ve been listening to the Daily Audio Bible for many years. I’ve never called in even though I listen to the prayers and…and pray for as many people as I can. And you guys are such a close family to me even…even though I’ve never spoken with you guys. I’m calling in today with a very special prayer request. My wife has been…my wife Jessie has been battling cancer for two years and we are to where the doctors have run out of treatment options and…and…and don’t give us a good prognosis. And…and…so…so, we need supernatural healing for my sweet wife. She is just an amazing lady. She’s an amazing servant of the Lord. She always underestimates how much she understands but her heart knows of God and just absolutely loves people. And I just…I pray that the Lord will have mercy and hear our request to let her stay here for a longer period of time. We just celebrated our 39th anniversary and our 40th since our first date. And I’d like to be able to spend many more years loving my wife and just being able to…to have her with our grandkids and…and helping them develop in the Lord. So, please pray for Jesse. Please ask for…ask for Him to…to reconsider His wishes. Thank you, guys for listening. Thank you, guys for praying. God bless you all.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible my name is Tyrone I’m just asking prayer for my wife. My wife is not a believer and it’s been a struggle just to share witness. She’s attended churches and heard the word and really, she’s just a little confused when it comes to salvation. I’m just asking for your prayer that my wife be saved, my wife can allow the Holy Spirit to speak to her heart and allow her to be able to accept the good news, the best news. Just asking you guys to pray for that and…and for my marriage. I know at times it gets trying where sometimes I just want to give up. But I just pray that you just pray for unity and for us to keep strong regardless of what circumstances or feelings we have. Just be in agreement with me, with my marriage, that it’ll flourish and that our testimony would touch many other lives out here all across the United states and the world. Thank you.
Hey everyone, this is Nobody Gets Left Behind in Colorado. Just wanted to pray for our brother James in Fort Worth. Today is Saturday the 10th of April. I just heard your…I heard your message about your daughter Ryan who passed away in January of 2020. This was just such a touching story and I want you to know that I’m praying for you and it’s so beautiful to see the beauty that’s made from the ashes. So, thank you for sharing that story. I did just want to speak a little bit about what’s been heavy on my heart lately. And it’s been my mom and she’s 65 years old and she OD’d last week. It broke my heart. I had so much hope for her and she was just very hard to deal with and here comes God to rescue the day and to save the day and I get to take my dad out of the nursing home this weekend and he’s always wanted to go to Royal Gorge so we…God made the opportunity for us to take him to Royal Gorge this weekend. So, I’m just overwhelmed with God’s love for us and how He makes really good things from bad things. And…I just…I wanted to share that and tell everybody I love you guys and I pray for you and I hear you and I’m just so thankful to be part of this Global Campfire.
Hi this is Paul from Ohio and every day almost I decide before I listen that I’m gonna call and keep praying for a Christian partner in my life, a wife who I can love like Christ loved the church and a path and a purpose. I’m 61 years old and still looking for God’s purpose for me. He’s given me so many gifts. I want to use them for Him. But then I always hear another prayer request or another praise request that changes my trajectory. I can’t remember his name but this morning I heard a prayer, I heard a testimony that affected me deeply. A man who lost his child years ago to asthma and is thanking God because without her…her loss he would not be as close with God as he is now. He knows…knows not thinks or believes…he knows that she is with the Lord. I want that kind of faith. I want to feel that peace, joy, security, courage. I want that. Everything else will come, I know it. I seek the faith of that man for having that type of outlook on life despite the fact that his daughter is no longer with him. Anyway, every time I start, and I have a direction that direction seems to be changed.
Hi, DAB I’m Allison I’m coming in on the 11th of April after listening to DAB. I’m from Somerset in England and I work for a mental health charity in the UK. I work on a…a missional support helpline. I wanted to ask prayer or give prayer for some of the people that are struggling with their mental health tonight. Lord You know who they are, You know their needs and their problems. I’m so…I’m so honored Lord as I know…I know You’ve helped me with my own struggles. And if it were not for You Jesus I would not be here today. Jesus as You’ve helped me and continue to do so may You also help people who need You in their life struggle and their suffering and their day-to-day situations. They may not know You yet but I’m praying You can soon be part of their solution to gain an understanding of what may help. Give them some hope and light Lord. Thank you, Brian so much for the opportunity to ask the DAB family for prayer. I have gained so much in my spirituality and walk with Jesus that I feel more confident in prayer now and I’m more able to appreciate my faith more. I’m stronger in the knowledge, in my knowledge. I don’t have to face struggles alone. I love you DAB family. Love you lots. Thank you so much. Thank You Lord. Thank You for giving this to me. Bye.