Exodus 17:8-19:15, Matthew 22:34-23:12, Psalm 27:7-14, Proverbs 6:27-35
Today is the third day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian. It is great to be here with you today. Got my nice steamy cup of wind farm coffee to my left, as is customary and got the Bible right in front of me, that’s not only customary, it’s necessary. So, were locked and loaded and ready to go. It’s great to be here with you around the Global Campfire today as we gather around this winter day to take the next step forward. I know it’s summertime for some of you as you gather on this summer day, depending on where you are the world, as we gather and find our place and just let it all go. Exhale, deep breath in, big exhale out. Oh, that is, that is so refreshing and knowing that these next few minutes, it’s a sacred space, safe space we can go back and face whatever we need to face, however, we need to face it. This is some time to allow our hearts to be bathed in the Scriptures. And so, let’s dive in. We’re moving back into the book of Exodus, which is where we left off yesterday. Children of Israel are in the wilderness, and they are learning that they must utterly trust in the God that delivered them from slavery. They don’t know it, but the wilderness is changing their identity. So, let’s dive in, Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 through 19 verse 15 today.
Commentary:
Okay so, in the book of Exodus today, we find ourselves in the open wilderness. We are in the deep desert. It is barren. It is mostly lifeless. It is not the kind of place that could sustain the lives of a multitude of people wandering around it. So, there are some lessons that have to be learned that the wilderness will be the backdrop and the teacher for. And we talked about that yesterday, how they were learning utter dependence upon God, and we talked about how this story, like this wilderness journey, is kind of a retelling of our own stories. If we will look into it and see how the children of Israel respond and realize we’re reading this and going, why would you guys respond that way, you have a pillar of fire, you have all that you need, God is right with you. How can you respond this way? Then we look at our own lives and our own wilderness journeys and realize, I’m grumbling, I’m murmuring, I’m afraid, I am just like the children of Israel. And so, one of the lessons that I’ve gotta learn is utter dependence upon God. So that’s kind of where we were yesterday. Today, we’re still in the wilderness, we’re still moving forward. But it’s Moses that has a bit of a lesson to learn on his wilderness journey, he hasn’t done this. He didn’t want to be doing any of this. He asked the Lord; he asked God directly. Like, he was having a conversation with the burning bush, he asked God to send somebody else, right to God. So, he didn’t want to be doing this, he has no experience leading like a multitude of people and navigating the wilderness. So, he’s got some lessons to learn, and they come by way of his father-in-law, Jethro, who meets him along with the multitude of the children of Israel and he bring Zipporah, was his wife and his sons back to him, to rejoin the household, as they continue their journey through the wilderness. So, Jethro is watching Moses and just kind of seeing his day-to-day activities. And if they’re not on the move than Moses, every day is morning until night, just kind of seated, being surrounded by people, making judgments on the issues that are arising among the people. It’s a lot of people, on a very, very big camping trip. So…so, there’s going to be some interpersonal conflict, as people jostle around and sort of figure out what they’re doing and…and they have all kinds of reasons to be concerned because they’re worried about food and water and how they’re gonna survive. So, Moses is out among them, and Jethro simply observes, this isn’t sustainable, my son-in-law. Like, this, you will burn out or to quote it directly out of Exodus, “you will surely wear out both you and these people who are with you.” So, in other words, the lesson that Moses is receiving from Jethro is, as you burnout you’re going to also be burning the people out. Everyone is not going to end up healthy here. This isn’t a sustainable way to navigate the season that you are in. And so, Jethro encourages Moses to a point, to appoint leaders among the tribes and to fill those positions, those spots with people who can actually be of help. Not just fill the people, or fill the spots with people who want authority, or fill the spots with people who are not good, do not…do not have good character, but to fill the positions with worthy candidates who can be passionate about the work of the Lord among the people and helping to organize and govern the people. So, Moses is learning that he can’t do it alone. This is…this is important because Moses never fully like, completely learns this lesson, he’s the senior leader and so there’s a ton of pressure on him and the people constantly are coming to him with their griping and complaining. And so, Moses is constantly reminded, like on a daily basis of his utter need for God to sustain him. And he does a remarkable work based on what he had to navigate. But we can see that it is a heavyweight upon his shoulders that he has to work through in the wilderness. So, this becomes a good lesson for us to learn, one of the wilderness lessons, we can’t do this all by ourselves. We were never meant to do this all by ourselves. We actually need each other to do this. But then we move into the 19th chapter of the book of Exodus and we’re…we’re beginning to learn some new things because they are at the mountain of God, in the desert of Sinai and God has invited the people to purify themselves, because a holy convocation is going to happen. God is going to come and meet directly with the people. So far, Moses has been kind of a back and forth speaking the mouthpiece, but God is going to reveal himself to the people and communicate with them directly. And so, Moses is sent to let the people know, three days from now, on the third day they need to be ready, they need to purify themselves. They need to wash their clothes; they need to get changed and cleaned and spiffy. Put on deodorant, I’m making a joke, they didn’t have any of that stuff. But get prepared. Purify yourselves. We will be meeting with God. And so, that is the backdrop for where we leave off today and we will continue the story tomorrow and find out if they do meet with God and if they do. How does that go?
Prayer:
And so, Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for another day, another day around the Global Campfire, another day to be together in community, another day to know that we are not alone, that we are moving through these things together. And that we are wrestling through together, wrestling and gaining deeper understanding in the Scriptures and wrestling through the issues of life as we follow the leading of Your Holy Spirit. So, Holy Spirit, plant what we’ve read in our lives today, lead us into all truth. We ask in the name of Jesus, expecting that You will do just that for us. Thank You, we pray these things in Jesus name. 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Hello Daily Audio Bible family, my name is Hannah. I’ll go by Grace Over Me. I’m up in northern Canada, I live on the Alaska Highway. And just like to ask prayer for guidance for my family. We are a foster family. And we recently, we took in a little three-year-old boy who was basically described as frail from our coordinator. No one else could handle him. And so, we agreed to take him on an emergency basis. There’s nowhere else for him to go right now. So, he’s with us. And he’s really hard to take care of. He has thrown tantrums where it takes my husband and I to hold him down, so he doesn’t hurt someone or something. And he’s occasionally hurt my other children and tried to hurt us. At the same time, we’re teaching him to communicate with sign language and we see progress. And we pray over him, and we have gotten prayer and a friend of ours has fasted and prayed. And we are seeing strongholds falling and this beautiful boy underneath. But we’re just not wanting to harm our own children in the process of trying to help this boy. And so, we’re faced with a really hard decision about keeping him long term. Or requesting that he move on. So, if you could just pray for us. That would be great. And include my parents at the same time because my mom has severe dementia, and my dad is trying to take care of her, and he has health issues. And she’s refusing any medical help at this time. So, if you guys could keep us in your prayers. A lot of people I love, hurting. Thank you.
Hello DAB family. This is Apex Adam from Washington State. I just finished up on the 30th, January 30th podcast. At the end of the prayer requests section, a young lady or a lady was sharing how she had been involved for 17 years with DAB, listening every day, new and fresh. And I’m in the same boat. And her testimony was so powerful for me because it really demonstrated what it means to be consistent in God’s word, amidst failure, amidst being on the journey. It was just so…so real to me and vulnerable. It meant a lot; it really spoke to my spirit. And regards to freedom, freedom from addiction and cycles of sin and behavior and rebellion and just how she processed that. I really loved that; she didn’t give her name. And she shared her testimony of growing up in a household where there was schizophrenia and things like that. And then there was some reflections on that. All that said, it was such a blessing to hear and so real. I oversee a staff of therapists. I’m a pastoral counselor and do some other things within the body of Christ. And I oversee a some staff therapists and we just see this as such an important role to understand what it means to deal with these kinds of psychological issues and give them over to the Lord in healing but also to follow the rules of thumb for medicine as well. So, just so grateful for everything that you stated. I can’t say it enough. Grateful for everyone. I pray for you every day. I’m always listening and considering and thank you for teaching me so much along the way. God Bless you all. I look forward to hearing more prayer requests. This is Apex Adam, Washington State, out.
Hey DAB family, it’s Mike in OIC. And I’d like to ask for prayer for community. I don’t have a Christian community right now. And motivation and just mentorship, I don’t have it and I need it. I just turned 40 a couple months ago, and I feel like I’m just not really being in active in life. Just kind of being more passive, if that makes sense. So yeah, I ask for prayer for motivation for a kick in the butt, and for my obedience to Christ. Cause like the Proverbs say, you know, little more sleep, a little more folding of my hands and poverty comes. And I’ve been sleeping way too much. Yeah thanks, that’s it for now.
Hello DAB family, this is Diana from Florida and I want to pray for Eyes of a Dove. I believe I said that correctly. She is dealing with her mom who has schizophrenia and for many, many years had been medicated and had been doing very well. However, now she has gone off her medication, as a result is having some very manic episodes. I know that can be very, very frustrating and so let me pray for her. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray for this mother, I pray for this daughter, I pray for them because for so many years, there’s been so much trauma and turmoil that has come as a result of this schizophrenia that the mother has had. So, many wounds, so many difficulties. And Dear God, solutions had been drawn with the medication that she was on, but now for whatever reason she has gone off of the medication. I pray in the name of Jesus, that You would encourage her to get back on that medication, dear God. I pray in the name of Jesus, that she would return to that so that she can be in a normal state of mind. I don’t understand, I pray that it would be so, that she would be healed completely and not have to depend on the medications but God, You know more than us, why these things are the way they are. And so, I pray that You would bring the resolution needed, and that she would have the medications needed. And dear God, in this, her daughter would be strengthened, comforted, that she would put appropriate boundaries and, in the end, find Your peace. In Jesus name. Amen.