Numbers 2:1-3:51, Mark 11:27-12:17, Psalms 47:1-9, Proverbs 10:24-25
Today is the 4th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today. It’s really great to be here with you today. Today is my birthday and as I have said for the last many many years we come to this day, and I count the years of the Daily Audio Bible. And, so, this is my 17th birthday which I can hardly believe, but it’s true. Birthday number 17 doing the Daily Audio Bible, which means I’ve been born and grown up and can drive a car and…and now I’m a teenager who knows everything. But actually that’s worked in reverse. Now that I have the second chance at being 17, I realize that I don’t know much of anything but I’m trying really really hard. And I suppose that’s what we…we learn in life. Nevertheless, it’s great to be here with you on this 17th birthday taking the next step forward together around the Global Campfire. And we just began the book of Numbers yesterday. We will continue that journey going forward now. Numbers chapters 2 and 3 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we continue the gospel of Mark it should be reasonably simple to see why the synoptic Gospels are called the synoptic Gospels because they share so much of the same source material and the same stories. And, so, the stories that we were reading today are stories that we also encountered in the Gospel of Matthew. And Jesus is back in Jerusalem. We are very very close to the time of…of His crucifixion, the passion narrative again. And the chief priests, the religious elite, those with the education, those in the know, those in control of the people are asking Jesus where He is…where He has gotten His authority to do the kinds of things that He is doing. And He asked them His own question. Like, He answers the question with a question. And the question is revealing. It’s about John. So, John according to the New Testament was heralded and was sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus, who is coming after him. So, John was sent, was from God and many many many many many of the people saw that, saw John as an actual profit. And that’s not a small thing. So, the religious leaders who are asking Jesus about His authority, they know there hasn’t been a prophet in Israel for centuries. And, so, we could understand a little bit of skepticism on their part. It had been 400 years until John came as a prophet. But John captured the hearts of the people and turned those hearts toward God and the people recognized Him as a prophet. But the religious leaders not so much. So, when Jesus asks the question, tell me what you think about John that is going to be very revealing. If they were to say John was from God he is a prophet, we’re just like kinda getting on board with that, we’re starting to understand what was going on there. Well then they could see God working in this plan and Jesus could speak to them however He chose too but since they answered they didn’t know, which was a kind of the only answer that they could give based upon their reasoning. If we say he’s from God, then He…then Jesus will ask us why we didn’t trust in him. And if say he was from man then the people then they’ll be afraid of the people. So, they’re kind of in this no-win situation. But it reveals what they are really trying to do which is to question and entrap Jesus. And, so, Jesus says I’m not gonna answer your question then. And He moves on and tells a parable. The parable is about a man who planted a vineyard and went away, right? And then sent at harvest time servants to collect his share for offering the property to grow the produce. That entire parable is a synopsis of the gospel. So, if we understand that the man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it is God and that the tenant farmers are the religious leaders, then we understand that Jesus is telling in advance the gospel narrative, the story of the gospel. And, so, let’s kind of end our time by thinking about this parable. It’s really short, just a few sentences. And, so, let me read it again. “A man”, which is God in this parable, “a man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress and build a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenant farmers went on a journey. When it was time, he sent his servant to the tenants to receive his share of the vineyards produce. They took him, beat him, and send him away empty-handed.” And we can think, yeah that’s Jesus but it’s not. These are the prophetic voices that God had been sending all along to warn and correct, to reorient the people, especially the leaders to the heart of God. “The first one, they beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And again he sent another servant to them”, which would be another prophet, “but they hit him on the head and treated him shamefully. Then he sent another servant”, right? Another prophet, “but they killed that one. He also sent many others. Some they beat and others they killed. He still had one left, a dearly loved son.” And this is where Jesus is in the parable. Finally He sent Him, which is the dearly loved son to them, which is the religious leaders saying, “they will respect my son. But those tenant farmers said to one another this is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours. They seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.” So, through story, through parable Jesus reveals the status of what is going on in the time that He is doing ministry. And He concludes saying, “so what will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenant farmers and give the vineyard to others.” And we are supposed to be those others. And in response they decide to kill Jesus. They plot to kill Jesus, which once again shows us just how backward things had gotten, which shows us how backward things are. And, so, there’s plenty for us to contemplate, not the least of which is who would we be in this story?
Prayer:
Holy Spirit come into that. We thank You. We thank You for the gospels. We thank You for this picture of…of perfection. We thank You for a glimpse at what it could look like to be in this broken fallen world, but to be true. And, so, as we contemplate what we’ve read today we invite Your Holy Spirit to come and plant…plant what we’ve read into our hearts. But part of planting is to prepare the soil. And, so, some that requires digging and some of that requires pulling up rocks and getting rid of weeds so that the soil may be fertile. And that is what we want our hearts to be like, and so that may require some digging and some uprooting. Show us what that looks like for us. We ask 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:
Hello, DAB my name is Sarah and I’m just calling in to ask for your prayers for my daily struggle with addiction. It’s something that I struggle with daily, and I seem to be failing at it most days. I need help and your prayer to be able to get through this and to stop hurting those around me because of my addictions. Thank you. Thank you for your prayers.
Good morning DAB family this is the Farmer’s Wife calling in from a chili 12 degrees up here in upstate New York. I just wanted to give an update. I am now 13 weeks, and I heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time on Friday and I was just in awe. And I just couldn’t wait to tell you guys Because you are my family and just to hear it…it was beautiful. It was just so beautiful. And I wanted to ask for prayer for the physician who is caring for me during this pregnancy and who will be delivering this child, Doctor John from Jordan New York. He’s the one who introduced me to this family, and I am forever grateful. And I just think it’s so amazing how the Lord put him in my past so many years ago to help me come to a healing place and then to be able to see my husband…the Farmer and I bring in new life to this world and just completely covered in prayer. It's…it’s just beautiful. It’s hard. There are definitely hard days when I’m milking cows and I’m like OK. But, you know, I’m just so grateful for all of you and I will keep you posted. So, the little munchkin and I are doing well, and the Farmer is getting excited. So, love you all.
Hey, this one goes out to Sean from London. This is Micah in Awe here in Kansas City MO. So, I had like a like a pretty…I did a lot of drugs and alcohol when I was younger, and it followed me up until I was 25. And, so, here’s what happened to me. I was just floating along doing whatever I wanted to do, whatever felt good and then I started feeling bad for what I was doing. Out of nowhere all of a sudden, they started feeling like what I was doing was wrong and was like sin. And I had a little bit of background in the church. Like my mom brought me into church as a young man. And as a teen she would take me and my friends to church promising to bring us out to eat after. So, I knew…I had some head knowledge of what was going on but I didn’t have any kind of heart knowledge and never took the time to really try to believe or care to believe. I was just, you know, doing what young guys do, just running around chasing whatever felt good. So anyway, I don’t know that I could have came out of alcohol and drugs and that lifestyle without first having the conscience…conscience issue, like where God made me feel bad like I was doing sin for what I was doing. Maybe that’s not the best way to put it. But like, I didn’t know I was sinning or I didn't…I didn’t care to know that I was sinning for a long time and then once I started seeing the consequences saw my sin and then guilt started…like Satan got in there. There was fear and guilt developing in me and growing rapidly. And I really felt like I was on death’s doorstep. And then that’s whenever I started having these feelings. So, I started running away from what I was doing. Whenever I would have a temptation sometimes, I would literally run or just…
Hi, DABbers it’s February 28th there were two calls today that I really would like to pay…pray about. The first…sorry…the first one was Sean from London who listens to DAB every day and prays for all of us and he has a problem with alcohol. Sean, I am joining many other DABbers to pray that somehow you will have the strength to not take that first drink. Try to do it one day at a time, one day at a time. When you…when evening comes find something to do and tell the evil one to get away from you, you don’t want to drink. Try it one day at a time Sean. We’re behind you. We love you. You are worthy. And then Selena praying for not only her home country Ukraine but for Russia. Spot on. The people are not the problem. It’s the evil one. And I join you in praying that God’s will be done in both countries because God is in charge. He has a plan. We need to trust Him and just keep praying for those precious people. God bless you all in Jesus’ name.
Good morning family it’s Soaring on Eagles wings from Canada. Sean from the UK I am so pleased that you called in, shared the temptations you’re undergoing, and your inability to resist them. Yet you have the knowledge of God’s word because you quoted them. So, in order to resist the enemy, you have to stand firm in God’s word and be ready to defeat it when it comes knocking at your door. I want to read a scripture for you today. It’s in Joshua 1:8 verse 8 9b. Do not let this word of the Lord depart from your mouth. Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Abba Father, I bring Sean to you. You see the struggles he’s having. And I pray Lord that You would just guide him, help him to be an overcomer. Today I want to speak the name of Jesus over Sean. Break the addiction that is within him and declaring that he has hope and freedom in Jesus. God’s name it’s powerful, its healing, its life. So, Lord I ask that You would break the strongholds over Sean’s life, that he will be free to serve You in truth and righteousness. Bless him today and remind him that You’re always with him. Sean, I love you and I’m praying for you.