Joshua 9:3-10:43, Luke 16:19-17:10, Psalms 83:1-18, Proverbs 13:4
Today is the 14th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire and move forward together, which will lead us back into the book of Joshua. And now that the children of Israel are in the promised land they are definitely wreaking havoc on the way people think and we have a number of kings coming together to ally themselves against Israel. And that’s where we pick up the story. Joshua chapter 9 verse 3 through 10 verse 43.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Joshua today a large swath of the promised land is now under Israelite control and that happened because of a deception that in the end turned in the Israelites favor. It was the people of Gibeon who had traveled three days but had made it look like they had trouble months to make a treaty with the Israelites who did in fact make a treaty with them without consulting the Lord as the Scriptures say. And, so, a few days later, the Israelites figure out what’s going on and they confront them and now they’ve made a treaty that makes it impossible for them to obey what the Lord had told them to do in terms of conquering all of the cities and all of the people. And it’s not long before this treaty is known by the other kings of the lands. And, so, some very strong kings in the territory ally themselves to attack Gibeon because Gibeon was a formidable opponent for any of them. So, for them to make a treaty with Israel, this is not a good move. This is not a good political move. This is going to be destabilizing. And, so, they attack Gibeon and Gibeon then reaches out to the people there in treaty with saying come and save us we’re…we’re being destroyed here by the other kings, which is what sets it all up. The Israelite army then goes to defend the Gibeonites. They march all the way there and attack immediately defeating all of the kings that were allied against Gibeon. So, Gibeon’s deception ultimately brought all of these armies together and Israel was able to confront them and then chase them back toward their cities that were subsequently conquered. And, so, that’s what we’ve got going on in the promised land.
Then when we turn into the gospel of Luke we have Jesus doing several different small teachings, but there is one that’s at the very very end of our reading today, very short paragraph that gives a posture…oh…a posture for our hearts that if we understood this posture would then offer us the opportunity to be grateful in every circumstance, rather than being entitled in every circumstance and self-absorbed in every circumstance. And, so, I quote our Lord. “Suppose one of you has a servant to his plowing or looking after the sheep. When he comes in from the field, do you tell them to hurry along and eat his meal? Of course not. Instead, you say to them, get my supper ready and put on your apron and wait on me while I eat and drink. After that you may have your meal. The servant does not deserve thanks for obeying orders, does he? It is the same with you. When you have done all you have been told to do say, ‘we are ordinary servants. We have only done our duty.’” This is a very different posture then sort of the quid pro quo that we often have in our spirituality. Like, if I be a good boy or girl, then God has to, in turn, then pay me back for my goodness. The thing that the Bible is teaching us repeatedly over and over Old and New Testament, is that we have no claim to our own goodness. Everything that we have has come from God. In and of ourselves there is nothing good. God doesn’t need to pay us back for anything. And when we are serving God from this place of understanding that we don’t even deserve to be a servant like the story of the prodigal son. We don’t even deserve to be called that anymore. We just wonder if there might be a place for us to labor, someplace for us to being here. This posture keeps us squarely in reality. We don’t deserve anything. And obedience to God doesn’t really earn us anything. We are ordinary servants. We have only done our duty. God’s blessing comes from His love and His fathering not because we’ve backed Him into a corner and been so good that He’s gotta dole out goodies because we’ve earned them, we deserve them. He must do this. God operates out of love, whether we deserve it or not. We, on the other hand, are fortunate to even have a place in God’s family at all. We are ordinary servants. We have only done our duty.
Prayer:
Father, we invite Your Holy Spirit to bring this into our hearts, changing things around from our mentality of expectation and then maybe disappointment that we don’t get what we want every time that we want it. Help us to remember the words of our Savior, “we are ordinary servants, we have only done our duty.” And then with a grateful heart we receive all the blessings that You have given us. Come Holy Spirit set us aright. Help us to see clearly, we pray. In the precious name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is home, home of the Global Campfire and the Daily Audio Bible app is also home of the same. So, either way check it out. Get connected in any way that you can or want to.
Check out the Community section. There are links there to the different social media channels that we are involved in. So, certainly check that out if you’re out there as well. But the Community section is also the home of the Prayer Wall which is just here inside this community for those of us who are taking this journey through the Scriptures this year. And, so, it is a place to go and…and share the story and ask for prayer about what’s going on in your life, or it’s a place to go and read other people stories and have empathy and intercede for them and let them know that you’re praying for them. So, check out the Prayer While in the Community section, either in the Daily Audio Bible app or on the website.
And if you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you. If this mission that we have to show up every day around the Global Campfire and find a place and kind of create an oasis for ourselves for the Scriptures to speak, just this little place where we can let go of the stresses for a minute and maybe be retooled and come back out from the Scriptures with better clarity than we had going in. If that matters to you and is life giving to you then thank you for your partnership. We wouldn’t be able to be here if we weren’t in this together. So, thank you. There is a link on the homepage, at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re are using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app. That’s the little red button up at the top or you can dial 877-942-4253.
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, my amazing Daily Audio Bible community. Hey, let’s throw another log on the Global Campfire. It’s Daniel Johnson junior here from beautiful Cincinnati OH and I haven’t chimed in in a little while, but I just wanted to say thank you to all of you prayer warriors. You know that maybe you’re not able to do a whole lot, you know, while you’re there in your life but boy can you pray. And it means the world to us that you do pray. And, so, thank you very so very much. Also, wanna give a big shout out to those of you who leave prayers in the prayer wall. It’s been encouraging for me to go over to the prayer wall sometimes and just offer to see what somebody is written and then pray for them. So, I’m so grateful that we have this community, this global campfire. I encourage you to support this ministry as much as you can even in any way that you can. First of all, pray for this community but also, you know, if you could support this financially. There was a time when I wasn’t doing it as regularly. And, so, now, you know, I’m making it a point to…near the beginning of every month, you know, as soon as I can to…to give some back to this community. But God bless you all. Here from beautiful Cincinnati OH it’s Daniel Johnson junior. I love you. That’s right I’m talking specifically to you right now. And make it a great day.
Hi DAB family this is Gigi from G-Ville. I just wanted to call and thank Soaring on Eagles Wings for that prayer for the blessing for me and Seth and baby Elise. We really…we listened to it all and we really appreciate yours and everyone’s prayers for us and for this new journey that we’re on. And she’s doing great. I am really grateful. I’m taking a little break off of nursing school. I’ll be back in the fall and I’m about halfway through. And yeah, it’s been really special time right now. Thank you all for…for keeping us in your prayers. We love you. Bye.
Hey family it’s Sparky. I try not to very often because I know there’s people with a lot bigger problems than mine, but I was going to see if you guys might be able to lift me up in some prayer. I’ve had a pretty good bought of depression for the past couple weeks and been real stressed at work and layoffs are coming and guys are stressed, and it’s just been…I think I’m missing my boys, my kids. They’re at the age…they…they want to hang out with friends and they’re just…I know it’ll pass and I just kind of feel as if I’m walking in the wilderness right now and God promises, you know, He will give you water when you’re thirsty but sometimes we can…we can not be looking at that big picture. And I just figured I’d come on and ask my family if they could pray over it and maybe help me lift this. I know it will pass and I just thank God for every one of your prayers. I keep praying for you all fervently. I love you guys.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible my name is Geneva I’m from Orlando FL I go by the name of Thirsty for His Grace. I am a quadruple listener. I’ve been listening for 2 ½ years. Thank you, Brian thank, you Jill thank you Ezekiel thank you China thank you everyone who’s responsible for putting this podcast together. Family I listened today’s reading April 13th, 2022 and just blessed by it but in my own daily meditation as we journey with Jesus to the cross I wanted to read this over our community. Jesus as we join You today on Your journey to the cross prepare each of our hearts to participate with You in the dark shadows of Good Friday in the bright dawn on Easter Sunday. Dear Lord Jesus, these are dark days. There’s so much brokenness all around. I think of those people I know whose health is broken whose relationships are broken whose faith in You is broken. Over these next few days as we approach each Easter may the message of Your brokenness somehow bring all of us a little wholeness and hope. May Your blood bring us the unexpected gift of new life. In the darkness of despair may the first rays of resurrection soon dawn. Love You Lord Jesus. Thank You that Your love endures forever. 2000 years after the Last Supper I eat the broken body and You make me whole. I drink Your blood and find forgiveness. Your loving doors forever. Help us not to distance ourselves today from the brokenness of the world. Break us and pour us out. Your love endures forever. We offer ourselves once again as living sacrifice to You the lamb who sacrificed Yourself, not just for me but for every single person I will meet today. Your love endures forever. Amen. Thank you love you family.
Hello, all my wonderful DABber brothers and sisters in Christ this is Sherry Mason from Kansas City MO. I have a prayer request. I had a delivery from a young woman named Baily and she was telling me how her back hurt because of the weather and I just spontaneously said can I pray for you and she just said yeah. So, I put my hand on her pray for healing, prayed for God’s spirit to come on her and when I was done…and I felt like I had to keep it short…she said to me no one has ever ask to pray for me before and I am really touched by that. So, I told her that God loved her and that all she had to do was call upon His name and she left. So, I am asking you all to pray for Bailey. I don’t think she’s saved. Pray for the spirit of God to come. Pray to her for her to have encounters with the Lord whether it’s through other people or simply by His spirit. But would you pray for her? I would so love to see somebody’s life changed. You know it’s a hard life sometimes and I don’t know how I would get through it without God. I can’t imagine the people in the world who don’t have Him in their life how they get through. So, thank you. Pray for Bailey. I love you all. God’s blessings to you in Jesus’ name. Amen. Bye.