Exodus 35:10-36:38, Matthew 27:32-66, Psalm 34:1-10, Proverbs 9:7-8
Today is the 13th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is wonderful to be coming to you from the rolling hills of the Galilee today. I don’t get to say that very often but the rolling hills of the Galilee are a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. We’ve been able to see that and visit some of the lands in the north and we’ll be really walking in the footsteps of Jesus today but we’ll talk about all that in a little bit we have gathered here together around the Global Campfire to take the next step forward in the Scriptures, and that next step will lead us right where the previous step ended and so, we pick up the story in the book of Exodus today, and we will read chapter 35 verse 10 through 36 verse 38.
Commentary:
Okay, so, obviously in the book of Matthew, we have reached Jesus crucifixion and death. And in a few days, we will actually be in Jerusalem following these footsteps of Jesus last days. And this is the first time that we’ve encountered this story this year in the first gospel, the gospel of Matthew. And I am struck by the indifference of the chief priests, the leaders and the teachers of the law of Moses. Jesus had become a threat to the status quo, and it was a complicated situation and it’s easy enough to kind of go on the religious leader side of things and appreciate what they had to discern and the way that they had to balance things out but their indifference, their mockery. It’s like they had had enough of Jesus and they just needed to get rid of him as quickly and efficiently as possible, as clearly as possible, making as big of a statement as possible that this guy is not the guy were looking for. And anyone was following him and needs to see where he ended up. And a very, very challenging piece of that is that God had come, they had been crying out and hoping for restoration and God had come and was in front of them and they couldn’t see it and not only could they not see it, they determined that they needed to get rid of it. In other words, they need to get rid of Jesus. In other words, they needed to get rid of God is quickly as possible. And these are the religious leaders leading the people to God and in the ways of God. The irony is striking to me. And I’m not trying to oversimplify, there was a lot going on and it was a complicated situation, but once they…once they started getting called out by Jesus and the inner workings of certain things were being exposed and the people or listening in Jesus was gaining momentum and He wouldn’t play ball, like He wouldn’t get with the program. The program that was kind of keeping the peace for the Jewish people, He became a threat. And it’s very, very easy for us who have hurt the story hundred or 200 or 500 times to just move to the end, Jesus rises from the death. The world is rescued everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. It’s a great story. If we can just linger here with Jesus, the Lord, hanging on a cross because he’s affixed there with nails, that He’s probably actually gasping for breath, while the chief priests and leaders of and the teachers of the law are there saying He saved others, but He can’t save himself. If He’s the king of Israel, He should come down from the cross, we’ll believe Him then. And of course, they would, if He came down from the cross. But He had been all over the countryside and everywhere He went, things were being put back together. People were being restored; hope was being restored. It’s like what else…what else would He need to do? And if we could take this kind of blunt scene, it’s a terrible scene, that Jesus is crucified on a cross, and blood is everywhere and pooling at the bottom of the cross and He can’t breathe. And people are making fun of Him, and jeering at Him, and sneering at Him at this public execution. Like Jesus is broken in body, obviously He is broken, He is dying, and this is the lengths of humiliation and humility and servanthood, that the most high, the Almighty God, who incarnated Himself into human flesh and became one of us, and dwelt among us, this is the lengths God was willing to go to, utter humiliation, total defeat, it seemed, to rescue us. Like there’s not a whole lot else we should meditate upon today. This is where the Scriptures have led us, and we should sit here and consider how many times we’ve missed God’s movements in our lives and labeled them and mislabeled them, how easily we can miss God standing right in front of us as well. And the lengths that God has been willing to go to, to put us back together again.
Prayer:
And so, Jesus, what do we say? We could say thank you, we could say anything, we can say we lay our lives before you as a living sacrifice, we can say anything. How we live is actually what we’re saying that we believe about You, we invite Your Holy Spirit’s to enter into that thought and allow us to consider because You demonstrated a total commitment to our rescue. It is beyond our comprehension, and it is beyond our capacity, and we stand in awe of it. We also realize that our level of loyalty has been less than that, considerably, and we ask for Your forgiveness. And as we meditate upon this seen today, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would awaken us, the joy of our salvation. We ask in Your name Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
Okay so, here in the land of the Bible, we are certainly also contemplating the cross and we’ll walk in those footsteps days from now and contemplate it kind of firsthand, as we walk those steps. But we’re not there yet, we’re in the Galilee and spending some serene days walking in the footsteps of Jesus ministry. And also, just northern Israel. And so, northern Israel actually, was what we did yesterday. So, our first stop, the ruins of an ancient village called Chorazin, and this was a place Jesus ministered and a place that Jesus frequented, and a place that also Jesus said woe to you, woe to you Chorazin. And so, it’s ruins, nobody lives there. And so, obviously, woe to them, but we were able walk around and view a place where Jesus was and get a little bit of an understanding and backdrop for the people around the Galilee, before moving further north, actually, all the way to the Lebanon border North, like as far as we can go north. To the ancient city of Dan, the tribe of Dan was there. It was a former, formally, a city formally known as Laish, the Dan-ites conquered it and changed the name to Dan. And so, we visited there. There is a lot of history there from the Canaanite era, all the way forward, and all the way forward into the divided monarchy, when Israel was the 10 tribes in the north and Judah were the tribes in the south, with two different kings and so we talk about King Jeroboam, the first King of the northern kingdom of Israel and his leading Israel into idolatry. Because there’s a pagan temple in Dan that Jeroboam had set up and he set another one up in Bethel, a twin to the one in Dan. So, we just talked about that and talked about owning a relationship with God and considering that. And it’s a beautiful nature preserve as well. And so, really beautiful morning being able to get out into nature and walk and appreciate and learn and then open the Scriptures and consider. And then there at Dan as well, is an ancient Canaanite gate, one of the oldest, one of the two oldest Canaanite gates it Israel. And the one there and Dan dates all the way back to pre-Abraham times. In fact, it’s very likely that Abraham went through that gate, Lot was captured and as…as the Bible tells us, Abraham went after his family, once they were captured and…and chased all the way as far as Dan. And so, we’re looking at the ancient Canaanite gates from the time of Abraham, and so, he probably went through there. So, that’s pretty cool to stare at that that piece of archaeology and realize that goes all the way back to the beginning of the story, like it takes all the way back to Genesis again. And that’s pretty, it’s a pretty striking moment to realize that, and…and every time I go there, I marvel at it. And so, that was a wonderful morning and then we moved from there to the ancient city of Caesarea Philippi, which is also famous in the Scriptures and Jesus is also located there. This is where Jesus went with His disciples and asked who do people say that I am and…and they tell Him. And then He asked them, who do you say, who do you say that I am. And this is where Jesus said upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And so, we moved around that site for a while contemplating Jesus question, who do you say that I am. And then moved into lunch and had a really great lunch together, a place that we always go. It’s it's…it’s a wonderful lunch and it’s the right time to eat and just kind of decompress from what we’ve seen. And then we moved from the lunch to Mount Bentall where we could see Mount Herman and she was covered in snow. And there was a ton of snow getting up to Mount Bentall like more snow than I’ve ever seen in Israel. There was snow upon the top of the mountain, we’ve had that before, we’ve been up there and there’s been snow, this was the second time. There was a lot of snow this time and a lot of snow on Mount Herman, so we were up there on the Syrian border, literally looking across into Syria, looking at Mount Herman and we took some time to pray for our brothers and sisters, not only Syrian brothers and sisters who are being persecuted. But all of our brothers and sisters who do not have the freedoms that we just take for granted, especially in our worship, we just take for granted, so many of our brothers and sisters do not have these kinds of privileges. And so, rather than focusing inward, we focused outward and…and prayed for them and that’s a moving thing, it’s a moving thing to do. And then, we spent some time up there, really pretty day. Got some coffee, enjoyed some time there and then moved down the mountain and back toward the Sea of Galilee, ending our day at Bethsaida, another place that we, you know, that the Bible locates Jesus feeding 4000, doing miraculous works, teaching, preaching, revealing the kingdom. A couple of the disciples of their hometown was Bethsaida. So, we went there and spent some time talking about it. And some of us and I just took the time to go for a walk. It’s really a great way to land the day. It’s so serene there, it’s so beautiful there, it’s a place that I can feel Jesus. Like, I can picture, I can picture Him walking through the countryside there. And others of us kind of toured the site there’s a lot of archaeology, a lot of really, really interesting biblical things about that place. So, that’s kinda how we ended our day and Jill sang over us. We sang with her and went for a walk and enjoyed just some serenity as we ended the day before coming back to the hotel. A little bit earlier. Trying to pace ourselves, get a little bit of rest. And so, that’s where we found ourselves, really, really beautiful day, having now gone north, south, east and west from Dan to Beersheba and we still have so much to go, but we have accomplished those goals. And so, today we’ll spend our time mostly centered around the Sea of Galilee and I look forward to telling you about it, after happens, after we do it. Thank you for your continued prayers over us everything is going quite well, and we are definitely enjoying our time, it’s definitely an effort and definitely takes a lot of energy, but we are doing well and so thank you for your continued prayers.
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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:
Good morning DAB family, I wanna go by GIA, which stands for God in Action. I’ll share a little bit of my testimony as well as ask for prayers. May of 2021, I wound up being admitted for observation, I laid there hemorrhaging for 21 hours and I was pregnant. They couldn’t find out what was going on. Bottom story short, I wound up losing the baby because of Anemia, loosing too much blood. Well, I had to get a D and C and his name was Matthew. I was 15 weeks pregnant. So, to fast forward time, I wound up relapsing, I was clean, I wound up relapsing on drugs. And in January 4th of 2022, my boyfriend at the time, had to call an ambulance for me, I was unresponsive. I knew, prior to that, I wasn’t feeling well, everybody was begging me to go to the hospital. I kept putting it off, cause of the drug use. Anyway, I wound up going to the hospital weighing 95 lbs soaking wet. I had a infection in my blood, they couldn’t figure out what it was. Now, today they know it was probably came from the D and C that they did or the pressure sore that I wound up creating because of the infection, it caused me to lose so much weight. They told my family I wasn’t gonna make it. I was on life support, the infection kept attacking all my major organs. I wound up having to get open heart surgery to try to pull me off the respirator three time. But by the grace of God, I made it. I’m here and I’m alive. Unfortunately, from it, one of the issues was the infection went to my eyes, so I am now 100% legally blind. I’ve been, I had to learn how to walk again and how to talk again. And how to feed myself and then adapt to being blind. God has brought me so far. I used to pray before therapy, every day, that He would just lead me. And my spirit has been so high. I’ve had my time; I’d say I’m usually at a high spirit for 95% of the time. But then, there’s that 5% and today was one of those days that I’m just really dwelling on my disability. But by the grace of God, I was wondering how, because prior to that, I was a believer in Christ, and I was that one out of one hundred sheep that went stray. And I’m, I’m grateful that He brought me back to Him and His grace and His mercy. But I’m asking just for, you know, there’s something that God wants to reveal to me in this time and that it be revealed. I don’t ask why anymore. So, just pray for my vision and that my, I know He’s gonna restore it but there’s something that He wants me to see first. And I just pray that everybody you know, don’t focus on the trip so much, that they forget about the destination. Which is heaven on earth. I love you guys and have a blessed day.
Hey DAB, it’s your girl Val here in Vegas. I sure hope ya’ll ain’t done with me. Oh, I’ve just been feeling so many of my sisters and brothers on my spirit. I got to reach out. Erica in San Francisco, I love you, but the best part is our heavenly Father loves you even more sis. I lost my mother 12 years ago last month and my grandmother a week later, my mom is 62, my grandmother at 92. Honey, I share that to share that the loss of a mother is a pain that is unreal. God blessed me to be there with her when she took her last breath. There’s nothing like that, being with the person that was there with you when you took your first breath. Oh, but sis you said it. You are her legacy honey and like your mama, God is my boyfriend, He my bunkey, He’s my lover, my master, woo, He my everything. Jesus and Paul were single, so it’s good enough for me. Honey, I need you to know that your mother is proud of you, woo, she’s so proud of you Erica. Baby you grieve, you celebrate her birthday on February 9, mine is February 15 and I will be celebrating your mother on the ninth. You didn’t leave her name; I want to know that sweet woman’s name. She did it right when she raised you. Lord God, we come before You right now, Father, for Erica. God, right now put in her heart to rejoice always. Oh, heavenly Father, give her pain for the grief that she’s feeling as a loss of her mother, God. Oh, heavenly Father, go and be with her. Wrap Your loving arms around her. Oh, Father, You are close to the broken heart. He’s got you sis. In Jesus name. Now, you go, and you celebrate your mother. To die is gain, honey. You get to spend eternity….
Hey, my beautiful DABers, so good to connect with all you guys. Come from SoCal, this is Christ in Me and I just heard, I believe it was Winston. I’m sorry, Webster, Webster and he was just sharing about how he desires to have just like more faith and have that relationship with God to maybe, it not be so logical and just so systematic like that. And brother, I just wanted to encourage you in that bro, because I’ve spent many years in apologetics, and it was such a huge foundation to my faith. And I found that, you know, as you’re finding right now that that can’t be like, all right, like having a logical faith and you know, there is reason behind our faith and so I totally get it. But man, bro, I just wanna pray that…that you would have an encounter with God and that He would come down right now and He would meet up with you so that, you would know that that not only is God real but that He is crazy about you every single day. That when He formed you, even before that you were gonna be here, that He formed you fearfully and wonderfully. Man, that He know that you were just gonna be so amazing and that, and that you would experience that personal intimacy and relationship, as He has with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit right. So that they had that beautiful relationship and that now, that you would have that union with them. And so, Lord God, may this just come…come about in his life Lord, that he may have that fullness of joy in You and thank You Got, that You are faithful and that You will meet him God. In Jesus name. I love you brother; love you DAB family.
Hi, this is Michele from Boston, I’m calling for Webster who was saying that you feel like you lack faith. You’ve been asking for faith for 13 years and seeking and you don’t feel it. I want to suggest that maybe what you’re looking for, what you’re expecting to feel, maybe isn’t the way that God is manifesting faith in your life. When I heard your story, and I heard that you’ve been asking and praying for 13 years, to me, that sounds an awful lot like faith. Faith is not a feeling that we can manifest within ourselves. We don’t need to feel faith in order to have faith. We don’t need to feel saved in order to be saved. That’s a lie. And so, I just wanna encourage you to think that maybe, God is giving you faith and you just haven’t been looking in the places where He’s given it to you. So, Lord, I pray for Webster and for all of us, who, desperately want the feeling of faith. We are desperately wanting to feel in our hearts, that we are close to you, that we trust You completely and those of us who continue to ask and to ask and to ask, and I thank You for providing that faith. You promised that You will provide us faith. And there is nothing that we can do besides ask for it. So, Lord …
Good morning DAB family. It’s February the 8th. This is Sam from Alabama just catching up. I’ve been out of the country for the last couple weeks. But I was listening to, I believe it’s the January 25 podcast from Paul in Houston. I just want to encourage you brother. I too, was separated now divorced 8 ½ years and estranged for my oldest daughter. And I just wanted to encourage you brother, keep praying into it. As the word says, God will redeem the years the locusts have eaten. And I promise you that’s a promise, He promises us and God will never go back on His word. And, also, where I’ve been the last couple two weeks, I’ve been in South Sudan and out in the bush. Just with the brothers and sisters of the N____ and N___ and then the D___ and W__ T___ and the J___ brothers and V___ and just want a blessing it was. And again, John, every time I hear your voice, it takes me over to South Sudan. I just love the people and just love the country and it’s such a blessing. Also, Margo from Liberia or Australia, we took MAF Uganda, in and out of there and, also, MAF South Sudan. But there was a pilot there that I met, and I told him about you and your husband flying for MAF Liberia and I didn’t you’re your last name I just said Margo from Australia and Liberia. He knew exactly who you were. And his name is Andrew and I just think, what a small world. And blessed be the tie that binds. I love you DAB, be blessed and be a blessing.