Exodus 4:1-5:21, Matthew 18:1-20, Psalms 22:19-31, Proverbs 5:15-21
Today is the 27th day of January welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here together today gathering to move forward and take another step forward together. And our next step will take us into the brand-new book we are getting moved into, the book of Exodus, the second book in the Bible. And as we have entered the book of Exodus, we have been introduced to a person named Moses, whom we will travel a considerable distance with. So, we learned about Moses and his birth and being raised in Pharaoh’s household and him killing an Egyptian and him fleeing and then the burning bush. And God is telling Moses I’m sending you back, sending you back to the place that you came from, I’m sending you back to the place that you ran away from. You are going to play a pivotal role in setting my people free. Moses was not planning on that and he’s not really liking this idea. He's…he’s talking to God. There’s a burning bush that’s not being consumed. His sandals are off because he’s on holy ground and he’s poking holes…like he’s poking holes with the theories that God is giving him…like how there…the challenges that will make this plan not work. And this is where we pick up the story. Exodus chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 verse 21 today.
Commentary:
Okay, so Moses and Aaron have reunited. Moses and Aaron have come back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron have met with the elders of Israel’s people and they believe that Moses has been sent and that God has heard their cry and that they should find freedom. And, so, they go before Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh exactly that - the Lord has met with us, we are to go into the wilderness to worship. And Pharaoh’s response is significantly less than favorable. He doesn’t know the Lord. He doesn’t know what they’re talking about. He’s not listening to this. They’re not going into the wilderness. He’s not letting them go. And instead, what happens is that Pharaoh makes life significantly more difficult for the Hebrew people. They’re supposed to be making bricks. This is their…this is their labor. And they’re provided straw to make these bricks. And, so, that’s what they do. Now they gotta go find their own straw and they have to make the same amount of bricks. Kind of counterintuitive because it’s gonna make the bricks probably less stable, which is probably gonna make whatever building the brick goes into less stable. But, nevertheless, to show the Hebrew people whose boss they gotta get their own straw and they can’t keep up. Literally they have been given a job that they cannot perform. They cannot find the straw and make the bricks. And, so, they are being treated severely. They are being beaten. Their foremen are being beaten. They go before Pharaoh and ask Pharaoh, why all the sudden he’s in a bad mood and why they can’t have their straw. And it’s because they asked to go worship the Lord. And, so, as we leave the reading today the Israelites are mad at Moses and Aaron and it’s just really interesting because gotta watch the story unfold. Moses was in a meeting with God and God called him personally to do a specific task, and then he was equipped with signs to display. And Moses is doing everything he can to squirm out of the job because it’s going to be a hard job and it’s going to have significant challenge. And Moses knows this. He grew up there. And, so, Moses says something that’s to…to me like…like there are a handful of phrases that happen inside of stories in the Bible that are particularly sad ans this particular…particular one where Moses responds to God is very sad to me because God is directly inviting Moses to play a significant role in the story and Moses’s respond, “please send somebody else.” That is sad because in one way or another we can find ourselves in those words. Send somebody else. What we want is the easy assignment with lots of visibility and lots of reward and we don’t want the behind-the-scenes story of facing the challenge and leading forward and moving forward. Normally if it’s gonna be difficult then we curse the devil when life itself is full of challenges, and we are a part of a story, the ongoing story of God making all things new, of God putting things back together again. And, so, let’s consider our lives today, the path that we are walking, the place that that path is going, what we believe the Lord has invited us to be involved in, and the ways in which we can be like this scene from Moses and invite the Lord to choose somebody else, that this is going to be just too big of a hill for us to climb. Let’s think about that today and then let’s come back tomorrow and watch Moses’ story continue to unfold. It’s not like we have this scene and now everything gets easy. We see that every inch of ground in this story is contended for. And, so, let’s watch the story unfold as we watch the story of our own lives unfold and see where the Spirit might lead us.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You for another day, another day to immerse ourselves in the Scriptures another day to get familiar and another day to contemplate what Your word is speaking into our lives. And, so, come Holy Spirit into what we’ve read today. Plant it in the soil of our lives and continue to teach us as we continue to meditate throughout this day on the things that we have read. We ask this in the precious name of Jesus our Lord. 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 is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers.I wanna pray for the…for Brian who called from the Hamilton correctional facility and I wanna pray for all the different facilities, even the woman in prison who had called in that one time. I want to pray with the precious woman in there and all the people at the…at the different facilities that needs prayer and that need…and are seeking direction. I also want to pray for the little boy who called about his brother with the diabetes. I wanna pray for for…for Gigi, and I wanna pray for…for…for…for the person who is going through financial strain, the prayer about her son in the mental facility. I wanna __ the whole problem. I’m wanted to pray for…for them. I wanted to pray for Bob Levine who’s going through in his marriage and I wanna pray for the health problem of…of…of Austin, his dad was having some health problem. I want to pray for the lady with stage four cancer and I wanna pray for Bridget in…in…in New York. Gracious father you heard the names you know the situation. Father you are a God that can do anything but fail. There is nothing impossible for you at your appointed time, even those in the hospital Lord, those with the stage four cancer, those with…with other problems Lord even diabetes. Father, You have Your way in the name of Jesus. You’re a God that can just speak the word as the…as the man said, You’re the man in authority and You just speak the word. And Lord we’re asking You to speak the word, We ask You to speak the word of this precious lady who didn’t have home…a home Lord, that was homeless, the precious girl who had a baby and didn’t know what she was gonna do also. We just ask You to have Your away. You’re a God that said You would supply all our needs. You said You would never leave us and You said that at Your appointed time that nothing’s impossible for You. And we give You thanks for the victory. We give You thanks for Your blessing in the mighty name of Jesus. We ask You to touch the Bryant family and all the people of God in Jesus’ name. Have a great day DABbers. Love you all.
Good morning DAB family this is Vicki in Arizona I’m calling out and asking for prayer on behalf of my daughter Ashley and her family. Her husband has recently gone through some crazy things at work as a law enforcement officer and as a result he has PTSD. He has in the last few months pulled away from their family, their beautiful daughters and their little foster daughter that they are taken care of and now is saying he wants a divorce. My heart breaks for them. I am asking for prayer to give them strength, give all of them strength to get through all the craziness that goes with PTSD. Give their daughters who are 17 and 13 the knowledge that they’re going to be taken care of, that…that they will be OK and that their parents love them and that the little foster baby is also going to be OK in…through all of this. Lord I just ask for prayer that that things get better. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Good morning DAB family this is Morgan in Texas. I need prayer for my family. This weekend my brother got put in jail from a different county area where we live. We don’t know what exactly what went wrong or we don’t know what he’s being held in jail for. Lord, I’m just asking prayer for…for truth for God’s peace and for all of us to sleep well at night. I just pray…need help…prayer for my parents for this time of situation. Also pray for my aunt Debbie who suffered a stroke. She doesn’t have anyone, and my parents just came back from Arkansas to see her and she just doesn’t look good. So, we just need prayer for my mom, encouragement in all of us as a family together, as a unity of family we all need prayer. And I just pray for…for your help and encouragement of words just to hear and what to say at the time and for…for Daniel while he’s in jail. Just prayer for God’s peace and His love upon him. And God knows what He’s doing. And, so, increase of faith in all of us and trust. Thank you DAB family have a blessed day.
Hi guys this is Garrett here from California. It’s been a while since I’ve called in. I’ve been going through some tough times. I had a really rough break up with someone I was with for a long time. Thought we were gonna get married and just been struggling mentally ever since then - depression and drinking and just self-medicating and just feeling I’ve lost my way of going against God. And I want to just ask for your encouragement and prayers to try and get myself back together hopefully eventually find the and…and just be a person that I want to be in life and just feel satisfied with what God has given us. So, please I would appreciate that and bless you all. Thank you.
Hello Daily Audio Bible my name is Emily. I’m calling from Grand Coulee WA. I usually call in to pray for the kids but today I need to ask you to pray for me. I have struggled for a long time with anger. I don’t know where it comes from. It just bubbles up inside of me every once in a while and explodes and it usually explodes all over my kids if you can imagine that. Just yesterday morning I had asked each of them to do a few tasks but I had asked them and asked them and asked them so many times and nothing had gotten done and I just exploded I just screamed, screamed. Oh, it was so terrible. And then they turn, and they look at you and they start crying and then everybody’s crying. And this is kind of how it happens. You know it doesn’t happen every day, but it happens enough that it’s just terrible and I just need help. It just feels like some monster inside of me that I can’t control. And, so, if you would pray for me that that Jesus would just help breakdown this stronghold of anger in me, if I am being attacked by, I don’t know, an angry spirit or something that makes this happen. But oh, I just need help. I don’t want to do that to my kids anymore. And, yeah, if you would just pray for me. Pray for healing, pray for a breakthrough. Thank you so much.
Hey DAB community I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Devin but I will be going by beloved in Bakersfield. I’ve been listening for a few years on and off and I had find out I was pregnant December of 2020 and I thought what a better year for 2021 than to listen while my girl was growing inside of me and I was successful the year of 2021 to be able to listen to consistently and I loved every minute of it. 2022 was a little bit sporadic. I…I listened to probably 75%. But I thought for 2023 I was going to be consistent in not just listening but to reading every single line of the Bible. And thus far I have been successful. I just finished January 24th and what a blessing it’s been just to really pay attention and spend that time meditating on God’s word. I…I also resolved this year to be consistent with listening to the community line and going through those prayers. And man has that also just been such a blessing for all of you calling in with your encouragement and your prayers and just getting to walk through life with each of you. I know it’s said all the time that you really feel like you know these people that you get to hear their voices and become familiar with and that hasn’t been truer than listening to all of you and I just thank you for coming alongside each other and just the encouragement and blessings that you speak for individuals. It's…it’s been encouraging for me as well. And, so, I’ve been a lot walking along with you guys and just loving every minute. And, so, I just finally wanted to say hi and just thank you for those who call in just for the laughs and those who call in for more serious stuff too. Thank you for being vulnerable and just allowing me to be a part of your community. Thanks so much.