Exodus 30:11-31:18, Matthew 26:47-68, Psalms 32:1-11, Proverbs 8:27-32
Today is the 10th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it is wonderful…wonderful to be here with you today as we do what we do every day and move forward, the next step forward together. And that next up leads us back into the book of Exodus. As we know we’ve been kind of camping with the children of Israel around Mount Sinai where what will become known as the Mosaic law is being revealed. We’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Exodus chapter 30 verse 11 through 31 verse 18 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, yesterday we began to talk about the fact that we are encountering the passion narrative for the first time this year, for the first time in the Gospel of Matthew. And the passion narrative is the story of the last days and death of Jesus. So, we left Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane with a mob on their way yesterday. And, of course, today the mob arrives with clubs and swords and one of the men that Jesus, God made flesh, had poured himself into, instructed, and taught walked up to him and gave him the kiss of betrayal, Judas. And then Jesus was arrested with a good amount of drama in the process. He was then taken to the house of Caiaphas, the high priest at that time. So, let’s just understand the lay of the land here. The Mount of Olives is…well…it’s not a mountain like Mount Everest, but it’s a big swelling hill right outside Jerusalem. And when you reach the base of the Mount of Olives you have entered the Kedron Valley and on the other side of the Kedron Valley then is Jerusalem. There is a place there near the old city that is called St. Peter in Gallicantu. And GFallicantu means rooster crows. And there is a really really beautiful chapel for contemplation and consideration of the fact that Jesus was brought before the high priest and Peter had followed along at a distance and was in the courtyard outside trying to figure out what was gonna happen. And there are ruins their believed to be the high priest’s quarters. And it’s not unusual for the places, especially the places that surround the life and ministry of Jesus to have church built on top of them. Sometimes ruins of more than one church that is built on top of a location. And this has historically been for the protection of the place, the preservation of the place and also the just the honoring or veneration of the place. But also, Jerusalem and the entire land of Israel has been through all kinds of conflict over thousands of years and some of that has been a pretty significant religious conflict. And, so, there have been times when other nations with other belief systems have taken control and systematically destroyed or desecrated some of these places and then maybe they were rebuilt, maybe they were destroyed again and rebuilt. And, so, there’s a number of layers in a number of these places. This is also happened on the Christian side of things where Christians, maybe in medieval times during the Crusades, or other times of taking control of the land and destroyed or desecrated important places to other cultures. And, so, a lot of times when there’s a church that’s built over a church that’s built over a church you can go down. Like the bedrock of what was originally there and the ruins of what might’ve been there are preserved below…below the ground because that’s kind of how history goes. It starts one place and then another layer and another layer and another layer as time goes by and like cities grow up and the ruins of the original city are below the ground. So, St. Peter in Gallicantu is such a place preserving what is believed to be the priests, the high priests home dwelling. And at the time of Jesus that would’ve been Caiaphas. And it’s probably not the last time we’ll talk about this because from when we come to these passion narratives I think of this place more than most, because if you get below the ground and go down to the ruins you see ancient storerooms and a cistern, a place where supplies were certainly kept, but also a place where people were kept. And it is believed that this is where Jesus was stored while all the arrangements with the Roman authorities could be again to be developed. It’s actually a difficult place for me to be in. I can’t say why. It’s not like I haven’t been in a cave before or some kind of ruins like this. It’s just to think that Jesus was stored there awaiting his torture and crucifixion. And this is the place where we find ourselves today in our reading, where Jesus is being questioned and ridiculed and ultimately condemned as a blasphemer as someone who is attempting to elevate himself to the place of God, which is blasphemy. So, it’s ironic for God to be convicted of blasphemy. But once it had been determined that He was guilty and deserved to die than they mistreated Jesus. And that’s where we leave our reading today, with the image of our Savior bound, His freedom was taken from Him, He was in custody. He had spit dripping into His beard and dripping down onto His clothes because they were spitting in His face and they were hitting Him with their fists and slapping Him and ridiculing Him by saying basically, “if You’re a Messiah or a prophet than who hit You?” That’s a pretty difficult scene to imagine or hold in our hearts if…if we’re in love with the Savior. And that’s where our reading ends today. And, so, it gives us an opportunity just to take this piece by piece, meditate on it, consider it. Consider the humanity of it. Consider the divinity of it. And consider what people are capable of doing.
And then we really can’t leave today without going into the book of Proverbs for a second because the voice of wisdom is the voice that is speaking in the Proverbs today and she is saying some profound things. And, so, let’s revisit this for second understanding that this is wisdom speaking. “I was there when the Lord put the heavens in place and stretched the sky over the surface of the sea. I was with Him when he placed the clouds in the sky and created the springs that fill the ocean. I was there when He set boundaries for the sea to make it obey him when he laid foundations to support the earth. I was right beside the Lord helping Him plan and build. I made Him happy Each day, and I was happy at His side. I was pleased with His world and pleased with its people. Pay attention my children. Follow my advice and you will be happy.” What’s profound about this is that wisdom is a companion of God and wisdom saw the whole thing when he created all things, which is remarkable. What’s even more remarkable is that wisdom, the same wisdom is available to us. So, if there is a case to be made for making becoming wise a category in our lives, here it is. The voice of wisdom has told us that she is more desirable…it is more important that we obtain wisdom than riches or gold or anything else that we could desire, and now we’re told that wisdom has been a part of the story since the very beginning. If we could just not blow by this. If we could understand that this is the goal. This is the thing we need. Our lives aren’t going to work without wisdom. And, so, may we do exactly what the Bible says and seek it.
Prayer:
Father, we love You. Jesus, we worship You. And as we’re entering into this story of Your sacrifice on our behalf and not like You just sacrificed something that You hadn’t wanted but that You gave Your life for us. Holy Spirit, awaken us and make this real within ourselves. Help us to glimpse what true pure love looks like. And we also ask for wisdom. Help us to know when we are encountering wisdom. Help us to slow down in our decision-making to seek wisdom who says She is there at the crossroads shouting to us. Help us to slow down and seek wisdom in our choices and decisions that we might become wise, and that we might be a delight to You. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning DAB family my name is PA Chappy and I am a Pennsylvania Army National Guard chaplain and I just have an amazing huge praise report to report to you guys. I started listening to the DAB in January 2016 just two months before I got divorced and thought that my time as a minister was over and that I wouldn’t have any other opportunities to do ministry. But God has had a different plan for me, and I am now actually one week away becoming a full-on chaplain at the with the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. I’ve been to chaplain candidate. And just yesterday I preached a sermon at a church that I had been candidating at to be their pastor and they voted to take me on as their pastor and I will begin as their pastor full time on March the 1st. This is a huge praise report for me but it’s also a prayer request. Please keep me and my family in your prayers as we begin this time of ministry as a pastor. And I know that the devil isn’t going to be happy about what we’re gonna be doing in the town that we’re in, reaching people and helping people find hope and healing through Jesus Christ and God…God is going to be working through this, but I know that the devil is gonna be attacking our family as well. So, please keep us in your prayers. We have a mighty work, kingdom work ahead of us and we want to do some mighty great things on behalf of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. Thank you DAB family for your support.
Hi I’m __ Wisdom. This is for Kira Contrite Spirit. I just got through listening to your beautiful spirit filled heart loving soul. I thank God because His word tells us but I say unto you love your enemies bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven for He makes the sun to rise on the evil and on the good and send the rain on the just and the unjust. Lord I just pray to You with thanksgiving in my heart. Thank you, Lord that you’re teaching us to not hold on to the trials and the troubles in this world with people because it’s not worth it. We are truly called the children of the most-high God. Therefore, we must ought to know in our hearts, mind, body, souls and spirit that there’s nothing on this earth that heaven cannot heal and there’s path…no path that He can’t make straight. He make the crooked path straight. And I just thank you Lord that we as your church can come to the throne of glory and find mercy and peace. Thank you, young woman. Thank you. And I thank the Lord for placing it in your heart because we’re all going through something. You know, the word of the Lord tells us because the __ shall abound the love of many will wax cold. But it doesn’t mean we have to wax cold. We have to rise up higher in our minds and understanding know that with Christ we live with with Christ we die. It’s not for __ but for him who endured to the end. Be blessed everyone and carry on in the spirit of the living God in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Afternoon DAB community. Thank you, Brian for keeping this going for all of us to join and hear God’s word daily. Such a blessing to so many around the world. I heard Kira Contrite Spirit sing a song to everyone who hurt her telling them she forgive them. I heard the voice of God. I heard the voice of women. I heard the voice of people who I’ve heard. And I just want to pray right now for people I’ve hurt and most likely because of hurt that I’ve experienced in my life. I’m just so sorry. Dear Lord, I just ask you to be with me. Help me Lord God to just show your love. First Corinthians 13:__ to the world around me fill me up with Your love Father God. Allow Your love to be what pours out in my life into the lives of those who I come into contact every day. I just ask You Lord God to be with anyone I’ve ever hurt in my life. Lord God just bless their lives. Help them to see maybe the reasons why I did it. Give me the opportunity to make amends if that opportunity still exists. Lord, please forgive me for all the times I didn’t know what I was doing, and I was hurting your people, hurting your children instead of blessing them and helping them to reconcile to you through your love. In Jesus’ name Amen.
Hi, it’s Shannon from Texas and I just want to say to Dorothy Jean from Fort Worth, wow what a testimony. What an anointing. You truly blessed me with your call. And I’m actually calling because I realize I haven’t given a true praise report for the many years since 2014 that I started calling in about my son Jadrien. And just a multitude of things, a rage issue, just violence, murder, speak…constantly speaking of death out of his mouth. It, you know, just so much. And I prayed and called in and toward the end of all this before his miraculous deliverance I really got down and prayed every single day. And you guys help me with that because I called in a lot. And now he has…he went to a rehab in prison for almost a year and when he got out it took him just a little bit to get back to himself. But let me tell you the miracle, the miracle that has taken place because he has been totally transformed. It’s providing for his son as a father. Got a job immediately and got a…like a supervisors’ position with a work truck. And it's…just…it blows my mind. I cry about it every single day. It’s just…it’s the most amazing thing I have ever witnessed in my life. And to see him being so bad on drugs and just…it’s almost like you just can’t even fathom that it’s possible. So, I want to encourage anyone that has a child or an adult child that’s struggling. It is not over. And you just keep praying. Keep calling in for prayer. There is hope and you will see deliverance and complete and total redemption. I love all you I’m praying for…
Good morning Daily Audio Bible this is John out of Louisiana. I’m calling in for prayer. It seems I’m slowly losing the use my legs. I can’t stand like I used to. I can’t walk half as far. And I went from my walking cane to a support cane and occasionally I have to go in a wheelchair. And, so, I’m just asking for prayer because I don’t wanna lose my legs. I’ve done lost enough. Well, that’s another story. But thank you all. I want to thank you all in advance for the prayers. Love you. OK. Later.