Eze 21:1-22:31, Heb 10:1-17, Ps 108:1-13, Pr 27:12
Today is the 10th day of the month of November, the 10th day of the 11th month, if you will, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we gather like we do every day around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward on our adventure through the Scriptures. And our adventure continues in the book of Ezekiel. We’re reading from the New English Translation this week and today, Ezekiel chapters 21 and 22.
Commentary:
Alright. So, we spent some time yesterday and the book of Hebrews just discussing…well…first of all, that Hebrews was written to Hebrews. And, so, it’s from one worldview into the same worldview. So, there are some common tapestries and understandings about things and how they work that we, if we had grown up in a Hebrew culture, would also understand. Wherever we live on this earth…like I live here in the United States…there is a culture here. Actually, there are many cultures here. It’s a melting pot. But there are regional cultures. I live in the south of the United States. It has a particular culture that’s different than say the Pacific Northwest. But when you kind of live in a culture then there are all kinds of things that aren’t spoken that don’t need to be spoken that everybody just sort of knows. And, so, that is going on in the New Testament. That is going on in the book of Hebrews. And, so, we have to peel back some layers sometimes to just at least get context. Even though context doesn’t give us a worldview or give us the advantage of having grown up in a culture, we can at least get closer, we can understand better. And, so, yesterday we were talking about those nuances and how we can read the theological statements, the truth statements in the letter to the Hebrews and go, yeah, everybody knows that. But when these things were being said originally 2000 years ago. in the first century it wasn’t like, yeah, everybody knows that. It wasn’t a part of the fabric of the culture that they understood. And these teachings about Jesus seemed off because nobody was talking about that in the culture or they seemed heretical, like leading people into deception. The writer of Hebrews is trying to say no no no no no no that’s not what’s going on here. It is a part of our culture. It has been foretold. We have been waiting for this day. Our objective here is to recognize that it’s happening instead of just missing it. Like…like our ancestors missed the voice of the prophets so often we need to not miss that God is doing a new thing but a thing that was foretold. So, we obviously continued forward today the next reading from the letter to the Hebrews. And in our reading today knowing all of that back story of nuance and culture and tapestry we need understand that what the writer of Hebrews said today was a big deal. And, so, let me quote. “For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come, but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable by the same sacrifices offered continually year after year to perfect those who come to worship. For otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers would’ve been purified once for all and so have no further consciences of sin? But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins year after year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Okay, so if you were in a Hebrew centric culture, had grown up understanding Mosaic law, understanding the rituals, understanding the customs, understanding the holidays and celebrations living inside of this culture worshiping at the temple atoning for your sins through sacrifices and somebody came along and said that’s over, that’s over that didn’t work anyway, it was just a shadow it was a foretelling of something to come but it wasn’t a reality, you might very well think this person is out of their mind or a complete heretic. And if you were in a first century Hebrew culture you also might have some…some ethnic pride going on. Like, who are you saying these things, Hebrew as you might be? Who are you saying these things as if we’ve never heard of God. Like we are God’s chosen people. This isn’t our first rodeo. We’ve been studying God’s law for an awful long time, like since He gave it to us. Who are you to say this is a copy, a shadow, it’s not real, it didn’t work, or it wasn’t the endgame. And, so, we can see, the writer of Hebrews is attaching the story of God doing a new thing to the story of God foretelling that He would do this. It’s the only link that Hebrew people might understand that they knew this was coming. They’ve been waiting for this. They have been hoping for this. They’ve been praying for this, that they need to recognize that it is upon them. But we can also see the challenge of people who have grown up in the culture trying to obey the law, trying to be righteous before God by obeying the law. And this is all a part of the culture. Like this is all a part of every celebration, every ritual, every…everything. We can see why it would be challenging. I mean, let’s just try to put ourselves in this position. We read things and have read things all year long in the Bible that have showed us about atoning sacrifices and very very specific typical ways of doing things and as Christian people 2000 years into the future we could say, yeah, that…that is the old covenant. That is how it worked. That is what God was doing but, phew, thank goodness we don’t have to do any of that stuff. We’re free from all that stuff. And yet, if we take a couple steps back, we realize we too are a part of a culture and even a subculture and probably a sub subculture, probably many different nuances of culture, but we live somewhere and so there’s a culture attached to that. We grew up somewhere and so there’s a culture attached to that. Those could be the same things, or they can be blended, which has enhanced our understanding of culture. We are also Christian people, disciples of Jesus which creates its own subculture, sort of a language and an…an…a common understanding, that no matter where we go in the world, we have brothers and sisters who have common faith. And, so, we can find commonality in that subculture. And in that subculture of Christianity, we have rituals, celebrations, holidays, customs, language. We have all of the stuff of culture and we’re used to it. Perhaps it’s been our reality since the day we were born. Let’s just take Christmas. Without like trying to dissect Christmas, let’s say Christmas is a day around the world where people who believe in Jesus commemorate and celebrate His arrival, His birth, right? It won’t be that many weeks from now until we’re celebrating that very thing. We could have studied the origin as origins and been like, okay, yeah, this…this kind of evolved over time, but nevertheless we celebrate Jesus’ birth on Christmas day and we do all kinds of other things like maybe we receive the Eucharist or communion every week at church or once a month at church. We have these rhythms and rituals that bind us together and remind us of the story that were in. So, let’s just say on YouTube some super…like I don’t even…like some superduper superduper famous theologian or pastor of thousands and thousands and thousands of people somewhere in the world, somebody with a really really big megaphone comes along and does this YouTube thing and says, it’s been revealed. The time that were in right now has come to an end. There’s no more Christmas. We won’t be observing that anymore. God is doing a new thing in the world. And, so, we won’t actually be observing any of these Christians centric holidays anymore. What God is speaking to the world now, and to His followers in the world is that we’ve had this season and now He’s going back to where we started and we’re all going back together. And, so, January 1st we will all then need to really get brushed up on Torah because what God wants is for us to return to Mosaic law and its customs and its holidays and its language. We’re going back to the sacrificial system and we don’t have a lot of time because Christmas is coming and this will be our last Christmas and then January 1st we’re gonna need to be ready, actually. So, we’re gonna need to get some sheep, learn how to raise them because they’re going to be part of our ritual sacrifices. And we’re just really going to understand what God was saying in the Torah and bring it into a modern era. This is what God wants His people to do thus saith the Lord. Well, that might get a lot of views. It might get some thumbs up and it might get a lot of thumbs down, but it would create controversy. Some people would say God is doing a new thing and yeah, I’m on board, I’m going back to the Torah. Other people would say, why would God do such a thing. And, you know, and then there would be a million other comments, a running commentary on what everybody thinks about everything about this. But to get everybody who believes in Jesus on board with something like this, could that even happen? And I’m not suggesting it’s supposed to happen. This is an example. What would it take to convince everybody who’s grown up a certain way, believing a certain thing to…not to let go of what they have believed, but to become aware that God is going to do a new thing. It’s been foretold, and it’s happening now, and we need to recognize it. Like we would naturally probably resist against that sort of change. We might even call that famous theologian or pastor, the one with the big megaphone a heretic. It would definitely make that person very controversial. That’s not unlike what we’re talking about here in the stew of the first century in which this letter was written. This was going to require a leap of faith. Obviously, many took that leap of faith and over the last couple of thousand years many billions of people have taken that leap of faith. And, so, that the…the subculture of Christianity around the world is the largest religious grouping of people on earth today. So, along with the gospel writers, along with the apostle Paul, along with Peter, and James, and John, who also wrote in the New Testament we have this letter to the Hebrews. Obviously, the message got out. Obviously, it ignited many hearts and continues to do that until this day, so people take the leap of faith. But at this point in time when this is all beginning, we see that it was a true leap of faith. And, so, it’s a good point for us to ask ourselves like, can God do anything in us? And if you wanted to do a new thing in us, would we recognize it? Because it would be disruptive. It would shake us. It would cause us to ask questions. It might even sound wrong. But then the more we think about it only sounds wrong because of the voices of our culture and the whole tapestry and backdrop of how we have lived. And, so, we get over that and we think, okay for me to allow this new thing to happen inside of me that seems that God might be leading me toward, might mean that I find myself at odds or sort of in the no man’s land for a minute because God is doing a new thing and He wants to do a new thing among all of us, but some of us see it sooner than others. And, so, there’ll be this, can I handle that without always questioning whether or not I’m wrong? You…you see the wrestling. And, so, that kind of wrestling has always been going on in faith, but it is certainly going on now. And, so, the fundamental question for us is, if God wants to do a new thing can he do a new thing? Will we let him do that new thing in us? And I’m not saying God isn’t sovereign and that God can…that He is prohibited from doing what He wants to do. I’m saying He collaborates with people. He wants covenantal relationship. These things we know from the Scriptures. He loves us. We know that. He wants to be loved back. We know that. This is a relationship. And, so, if He’s like, look, we need to move in a different direction. I need to bring you over here. We’re going to do a new thing and it’s can it change some things about how you see my people, and it’s gonna change some things about how you understand the culture that you’re in would we let it happen or when we run for the cover where we feel like we are safe in numbers? Like, we pray regularly in our Christian culture for God to do a new thing, for God to shake us or wake us up or revive us or send revival. We want God to do something big and magnificent and noticeable and new. But what we would we do if He does because that is exactly what we’re looking at when we look at the story of Jesus in the Scriptures, something foretold, a brand-new paradigm, the end of one covenant, the inauguration of a new one. And if all you ever knew was the old one it would be a leap of faith to jump into the new one. It’s just that God isn’t afraid of those kinds of things. We can build paradigms and theological formulas all that we want but God isn’t willing to follow our formulas if it will thwart what He wants to get done. God is sovereign and will do what is right. And He will shatter paradigms. And He will even use the Scriptures to do it. So, going back to what I read earlier in Hebrews chapter 10. “The law possesses a shadow of the good things to come, but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable by the same sacrifices offered continually year after year to perfect those who come to worship.” This is fundamentally saying that…that way of doing things and that way of understanding God has come to an end and a new thing has begun that no longer requires sacrifice or that type of atonement. The price has been paid once and for all. There has been a final sacrifice in the system. It is over. Sin isn’t a category for those who believe. Sin has no claim. We can go right into the holy of holies to our Father. So, God is willing to blow up paradigms, actually pretty big ones, which means that He’s not afraid to blow up smaller paradigms in our lives in order to pull us forward and deeper. The question might be, would we resist or would we leap in faith? Some things for us to think about today.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit, come. We invite You into all of this. To discern that You are doing something new, that You are calling us into the unknown, that You are shattering a paradigm and we are going to have to take a leap of faith, that can be tricky on all kinds of levels - the cultural level, the relational level and just the fear level - that what we seem to see You pulling us toward is something that requires us to leap out into the dark in faith, letting go what we thought we knew about You or letting go what we thought we knew at all. These are challenging things. They’re supposed to be challenging. It’s an invitation to grow, but an invitation that requires profound discernment. And, so, Comforter, come. Give us wisdom. Lead us into all truth but allow us to understand that You will always be pulling us into a place that is uncomfortable where we must grow. You are Fathering us. You love us. You want us to understand the ways of Your kingdom and its authority. And so often that means a challenge to what we thought we knew. And, so, help us walk this narrow path that leads to life and live this life of faith as a grand adventure with You. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I will be waiting for you here tomorrow.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning DAB family my name is Barbara and at 1:00 o'clock this morning my husband passed away of 41 years and I just want to say thank you because I started listening to the Daily Audio Bible back in February of this year and it has brought so much comfort to me through this…through this time. And I just wanna say thank you. I’ve also downloaded the Sleep thing last night for him. He was very restless and I guess he was just getting ready to meet his Creator but he um he was very restless and he listened to that and he just became so calm. And when he died this…this morning at 1:00 AM he was at peace, and he even had a little smile on his face. So, thank you. Thank you for being there for me and encouraging me throughout this year. And I will continue to…to listen to it. And I want a shout out to Kayla young girl who that sounded like…that called in on this day, I don’t know what time…just she’s very unhappy and distraught and I just pray. I pray for her Lord, that she would find Your love, that she would not give up on life, but that You have so much more in store for her life. So, thank you DAB, __…
Dear heavenly Father, I have just listened to the November 6th call in on DAB and I heard that sweet Kayla at the end of it calling for prayer and wanting to go home. Lord, I just pray right now that You touch her, that You send Your angels to comfort her and give her strength Lord that she knows she has a reason to live, that she has a beautiful daughter that needs her to live. Lord, whatever she’s going through we just call upon You right now. I believe it that You are protecting her, that someone is there hugging her and lets her know she is worthy, and You have not forsaken her, that You are there with her Lord Jesus. We just give You all the honor and all the glory Lord. Just bless her. Send those angels to comfort her Lord where she is, that they find her. Thank You for who You are. I thank You for this group, this community. You have been my rock when I have been so weak. So, I am lifting her up right now Lord Jesus. Protect her. Let her know it is not time Lord. Protect her. See her through it and send some people, some angels to comfort her and give her strength and show her the purpose that You have for her life and she has a reason to live for her daughter in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hi this is Heidi in Texas first time caller but absolutely love hearing your prayer requests and praises and encouragements. I’m a little behind but this is for…identified as Lazarus and wanted to change his name to legion. And I hear in your voice a hesitancy of just letting it being OK that you have screwed up. We all have dude and I just want to pray for you right quick. God I just lift this precious man who is broken. And You’ve promised us that You are near to the broken hearted. Father, I pray that Your beautiful peace will pierce his heart and surround him with Your goodness and Your love and Your grace. God, I pray for a miracle in his marriage and the wife that he has realized he has hurt over many years. God, I pray for a massive miracle of forgiveness of understanding of reuniting. God, I stand against the enemy when he is coming to destroy the marriages in the church and in the godly families. God, I stand against that and I pray unity over any kind of strongholds the enemy has put on the marriages. God be with this man who identifies as Lazarus and just resurrect his marriage, resurrect his heart and his soul. God, we praise You. Amen.
I just listened to the airing on November 6th, and I heard my sweet sister Kayla praying. Kayla, I couldn’t help but pick up the phone and hold it to my chest and give you a virtual hug. My heart broke with yours. It’s so hard when our feelings don’t line up with the truth. There is nothing that you can do to make God love you less and I’m sure you know that but I just wanted to remind you of that. You are so dearly loved and I am so sorry that you don’t feel that. Father, I just ask you to lavish your love on my sweet sister Kayla and let her feelings align with your truth. Give her the strength to hold on and be there and be strong for her sweet daughter. Strengthen her and be everything that she needs in every area of her life I pray to your glory in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Hi my name is Savon I was just coming on here to seek prayer and blessings from the Lord. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the world right now and people and me and my family and it gets to a point sometimes where it’s just a lot to handle and I was just asking to come for prayer and I just wanna say thank you. You guys have helped me a lot. God has blessed me a lot and I have been…I’ve been trying to listen to this every day. Sometimes I do be failing but I just want to get in a good light of God and I’m trying to. You know it seems really hard. Sorry, I’m crying. But I appreciate you guys and I hope God blesses you all. Please just keep me in your prayers. God bless you guys.