Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalms 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5
Today is the 4th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue our journey forward through the Scriptures this year. And today we will pick up where we left off yesterday. We are in the wilderness with the children of Israel who are being remade. They are…they are transforming from slaves into God’s chosen people and a lot of lessons are being learned. So, yesterday Moses learned lessons about delegation and getting help. His two sons and his wife have come and joined the camp of Israel after all of the things that happened in Egypt. And now God has told Moses that He is coming to the people to speak with the people, and they are to prepare. And, so, we’ll pick up the story there. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through chapter 21 verse 21.
Commentary:
Okay, so there are a number of things we should observe from today’s reading both from Exodus and from Matthew because in some ways we get a little bit of a before and after view. We’ll talk about that in the second. First off, God had told the people to prepare themselves, to purify themselves, and to come to the mountain that He had descended upon that He was going to speak to the people, but upon the mountain were smoke and thunder and lightning and all matter of things that terrified the people terrified them of God. And, so, in the end they came to Moses and said, “Don’t let God speak to us. You listen to God and then you tell us what God said and then we will obey God by obeying you.” And this certainly does give us the foundation for the…the role of the prophet in Hebrew life, especially in biblical Hebrew life. But let’s remember, God didn’t say to the people, “you come near the mountain, I’m gonna talk to Moses, Moses is gonna talk to you.” What God said was, “I’m gonna speak to the people.” He was gnna speak directly to the people. And they rejected that in favor of an intermediary. And we can think, yeah, whatever, that’s no big deal, but it…it does become a larger issue in the writings of Paul, which we haven’t gotten to yet. But let’s remember this moment at Mount Sinai because it’s something that we will touch on in the future as we get a little bit further into the year. But we are also reaching a point now that…well…the 10 Commandments for example, were given in today’s reading. And, so, the things, the laws, the statutes, the customs, the holidays, the rituals, all of the things that would form a culture and bind it together, these things are beginning to be revealed in the wilderness to Moses. And this will go on for quite a while. We remember, these people only know how to be slaves in Egypt. So, those are the customs that they know and the things that pull them together, Egyptian slavery and how to navigate it. When where they’re headed his into a promised land where they will be self-governing under God. And, so, God begins to reveal what becomes known as the law or the Mosaic law, which is to form and govern the Hebrew people.
If we move into the book of Matthew from our reading today, we will have moved forward a couple of millennia. So, in our Old Testament reading we are at the very beginning of God starting to reveal the customs and cultures and statutes and the things that He expects it will form this people. In Matthew all of the law has been given, all of the people have gone through all kinds of things that people would go through in a couple thousand years. The law has been interpreted and reinterpreted, and we hear Jesus saying, “how terrible it will be for you legal experts and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you shut people out of the kingdom of heaven. You don’t enter yourselves and you won’t allow those who want to enter to do so.” So, that’s like a little bit of the before and after. It’s like the law is just beginning to be given in Exodus. In Matthew we see God made flesh commenting on the very people that are to lead God’s people in obedience to the covenant of the law. And it is that very law that impart turns the religious leaders against Jesus for things like profaning the Sabbath Day or blasphemy. Those things are against the Mosaic law, at least against the way that the Mosaic law was being interpreted. And, so, over the course of time we’re goona have the opportunity to look at this and through the lens of the apostle Paul we’ll have some interpretation that fundamentally boils down to the spirit of the law or the letter of the law. The letter of the law are the words as their written. The spirit of the law is that before the law was given there was a set of circumstances or behaviors or something going on that required that this law be defined in such a way, the spirit of the law. And we don’t have time to dive into all that today, we couldn’t dive into that just today. That will emerge over time as we move through the law and move deeper into the Gospels. But right here on the front-end as the law is just beginning to be revealed it’s good for us to at least kinda understand these categories. Like, if…if in our nations, because all of our nations have rules and regulations and even customs and rituals, but we have laws and by the letter of the law, if the law is broke, it’s a black-and-white thing which really doesn’t leave any room for mercy or for context. And this is pretty important in the New Testament as the understanding of the Christian faith is being revealed.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for the majesty of Your word. We thank You for the Scriptures and all of the different nuances. Each day is touching something different, whether that being enlightening us with knowledge or that being cutting us to the heart and causing repentance. And, so, we are grateful. And Holy Spirit as we move into this territory in the wilderness, we ask that You lead us into all truth. And we pray this in Jesus’ 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:
Hi, this message is for a little Kayla praying for her friend Azarah. So, Kayla thank you for your faithfulness and standing in the gap for your friend. And God we just ask for Azarah right now, You will touch her body, You will heal every cell, everything that’s not from You God You will remove it from her body, that her body will be restored to new…restored to normal. So, I just ask You Lord for…to touch Azarah’s body God, that she is healed right now in the name of Jesus, that she will wake up in the morning and be completely healed. The doctors will be astounded and…and she’ll say,” well…of course. My friend Kayla prayed for me. That’s why. That’s why I’m healed.” So, we just thank You God. We just ask You to lift up Layla and Azarah’s friendship God, that they would be like…like closer than two sisters God. So, we just thank You and ask You for this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning, everybody. Hey this is Annette from Oklahoma City. I would like to respond to the gentleman who was trying to get into the ministry and then found that his past was creeping up on him a little bit. Brother, boy oh boy I have been there myself. Before I got into the Daily Audio Bible my life was a mess and I didn’t really care too much about if I lied to people. I had a filthy mouth. I had a dirty mind. I was probably everything that the…the New Testament says that you shouldn’t be, like don’t be thinking on these things. I…I think I hit every one of them. And then I got real sick and I had limes disease and it messed up my memory pretty much. I mean a lot like. A lot of my life’s missing. It’s really weird. And then sometimes I see people from my past that I haven’t seen in a long time, and it makes me go, “Oh no. I can’t. I can’t remember. How did this go?” You know, “was I awful to this person? Did I say something bad?” You know? And…and all I can do now is go…I look at that person and I go, “you know what? I…I…I remember you and I would like to tell you that I’m sorry if I ever hurt you or offended you.” And that’s where it leaves me today. So, now it makes me afraid, like I hope I don’t hurt somebody you know. It makes me very conscious of my actions today. Almost like I had to just dump all my friends. I was very lonely for a long time because when I realized where these people put me, I was like I don’t want to go back there again. So, I’m gonna pray for you and I just hope that you take a stand against yourself. And I mean that you understand what’s right and wrong and hopefully, you know, you can get yourself squared away. And it just takes time. It takes time for people to learn how to trust you again. And…but if you prove yourself to be an honorable person, you know, and you just you focus on the things that are good and right you’ll make it. You’ll make it and the Lord’s gonna reveal a path. Maybe He just needed to stretch you a little bit more. Okay? I love you. You have a great day everybody. Bye-bye.
Good morning DAB family this is Laura in Colorado. I just have a prayer request I’d like to put before you guys. I know we have so many prayer warriors here. My family is feeling called to foster a baby girl. I work in the NICU. And this baby needs a place to go, and we really feel called to be ever come be a part of our family, temporarily if that’s what’s necessary. So, would you please pray with me for that? There’s a lot of moving parts and right now some uncertainty and just need wisdom and clarity and for God’s will to be done over this little life. So, thank you family for all your prayers.
Hi everybody it’s beloved in Texas. I just want to play for __ from Nebraska. Girl I’m __ too and I know what that’s like. And I know it’s a completely different animal and your mind races and you just don’t seem to know what end is up. And the bad part is is when you’re depressed you don’t even care. You don’t care which end is up. So, I just want to pray for you right now. I just pray for peace, clarity, and a joy that surpasses all understanding in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Good morning, DAB family this is Laura in Haverhill Florida. I’m calling this morning on February 1st to pray for Dave from the UK. Dave who has two…has 18 year old twin sons, I pray for Dave and his wife that they would be strengthened, their faith would not fail, that they would not give up and Lord that they…they would trust You with the lives of these boys. I pray for the one of the wheelchair Father who had cerebral palsy. Father, please give this child relief from pain. Please help him to be able to have sleep, sweet sleep at night, Father that he would be able to not give up, that his faith would stay strong, and Lord that You would heal his boy, that You would heal him, that You would take away the pain. Father, I pray for the other son that is dealing with the seizures every week. Lord You know what’s causing the seizures and I pray Father God for healing for this boy. Oh, Father I know that when we see our children suffer that Lord its hard on us because God we love our kids so much. And I can only imagine how much You love them, how much You love us. Father I pray that Your love would be overflowing in this home, that You Father would protect their hearts and minds from doubts from giving up, from anger, from distress, from depression. Lord I pray Father for strength for all of these all of these people in this family. And…and Lord I just pray for healing, complete healing in Jesus’ name. Thank You, Holy Spirit.