03/20/2023 DAB Transcript

Numbers 30:1-31:54, Luke 4:1-30, Psalms 63:1-11, Proverbs 11:20-21

Today is the 20th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today like every day, wonderful to be around the global campfire, wonderful to have this place to be together. And the purpose that we gather is to take the next step forward in the Scriptures. And, so, let’s dive in today. We are rounding the bend and coming to the conclusion of the book of Numbers. Couple more days and we will move forward before this week is out but we are still in the book of Numbers and our next step forward leads us to where we left off. Today we will read Numbers chapters 30 and 31.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we have a really interesting scene in the gospel of Luke today and the scene centers around Jesus and the beginning of his ministry, but this is Jesus. And, so, we’re watching Him also model life on earth as it was intended to be for us, that we may follow the same pattern. So, Jesus was baptized outside of Jericho at the Jordan River where John was baptizing people. This is desert terrain. And once Jesus was baptized, He went out into the wilderness for 40 days. Jesus had His own wilderness journey and very likely His 40 days in the wilderness imitate the 40 years that the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. And, so, from a symbolic perspective Jesus would be revealing that the wandering is coming to a close. But while Jesus is in the wilderness, He has an encounter with Satan in the desert and Satan is there to provoke or to test or to tempt him. and it’s interesting the things that the evil one goes after. there are temptations to go after Jesus physical body. There are temptations for Jesus to worship lesser things. And there’s a temptation for Jesus to test God all with a promise attached to these temptations. If you do these things, it’s the easiest way to get what you want. If you do these things everything can be easy. Everything will be immediately better. Worship me, and you can have it all. There’s no battle here. Worship me, and you can have all of it. If we pause and think about the seasons that we have spent in the wilderness, those seasons do wear us down and shake us till all that is unshakable is all that remains, and we do see clearly our utter dependence upon God. But if we are honest about the seasons that we’ve been in the truth is probably 90% of the time was spent thrashing around trying to figure out how to get away from the hardship or the difficulty or the challenge. It’s in that thrashing around that we begin to experience those subtle and similar temptations. It can be so much easier if you take this path out of this wilderness even though you know this is the wrong path, even though you know this is not the right thing. It can all be yours in it can all be yours easy if you just step away from this wilderness, follow the path that I’m laying out for you, worship me, all will be good. And it’s unlikely that we hear it like that. It’s that we’re thrashing around looking for any way out instead of embracing the safety of the wilderness, knowing that once again we are utterly dependent upon God, and there are no shortcuts because we need…we need the lesson that we are learning for what comes next. And as it turns out in the gospel of Luke, Jesus resists the devil. The devil does leave Him and as the gospel of Luke says the devil leaves Him for another opportune time. And then the next scene is that Jesus makes it back to Nazareth, which appears to be the next opportune time because Jesus is in His hometown. He’s come home to declare the inauguration of the ministry and the fulfillment of prophecy. And, so, the people have been hearing about Jesus and they’re happy to hear Jesus and they’re intrigued very much by the way that He communicates and what He’s saying but they’re also…there was skepticism and they just want to see Him do the things they’ve been hearing about and that’s when Jesus tells them a prophet really has no regard in his hometown. In the end, the people of Nazareth are enraged and they drag Jesus to the top of a cliff. This is…well the traditional place now is called Mt. Precipice. And, so, Jesus is able to overcome the temptation in the wilderness, but can He overcome a mob that is intent on throwing Him off the side of a cliff and that being the end of the story. And it’s interesting because Jesus is here on this precipice and He just…according to the gospel of Luke, and I quote, “He passed through the crowd and went on His way.” So, we can look at the scene and go, okay, there…here’s a miraculous kind of thing, Jesus somehow got cloaked, He had the power of invisibility and he just disappeared, and he went on His way. This is a miraculous event here. We can look at it as an event in Jesus’ ministry life. We also need to look at what’s being modeled here in the life of Jesus and apply it to our own lives. Jesus overcame temptation in His wilderness journey, only to come and face cynicism and marginalization by His own hometown, His own people, where He had specifically come to announce His ministry, to announce what He came to do and to tell everybody this is being fulfilled. Like, you got to see, you are getting to see something happen that was foretold. In the end they just want the magic and in the end, they’re going to throw Him off the cliff and in the end, they are denying what He came to tell them He had come to do. These are the voices of doubt. These are the voices of cynicism. These are the voices that say you’ll never be able to do that. These are the voices telling Jesus we’ve known you since you were a kid and we’re not sure You are who You think You are or who You’re purporting Yourself to be, right? A direct attack on Jesus’ identity. Oh…we all experience these things. Every human being experiences these kinds of things and so often we experience these kinds of things from people that know us, like that we’re never really allowed to grow beyond who we were even though we’re double the age of who we were when we lived there in the hometown. Like, we get stuck. We’re pigeonholed. We’re put into a place and our identity feels attacked. And, so, being in that environment makes us feel small. What is the lesson here? He passed through the crowd and went on His way, which is indeed what He did. He went on his way and kept doing what He came to do. It would be very helpful for us to remember this scene as we walk through these seasons because we all will and there may be times that we need to follow Jesus, who is telling us we need to get out of here and pass through the crowd and go on our way and continue on the mission that God has given us.

Prayer:

Jesus, we invite You into that. That’s not permission for us to become aloof and arrogant. That’s permission for us to just abandon everything that challenges us. That is an awareness that as we walk with You and follow in the pathways that You have laid out for us and as we see You at work in the world and in our lives and in our families and in our communities we need to be awake and aware to that which is attacking our identity and the mission that You have placed us upon and be willing to pass through it and move on our way as You lead us. Help us to see where we’re going and why. Help us to understand what You are doing. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

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Check out the different sections like the Community section. This is where different links to get connected on social media are but it’s also the home of the Prayer Wall and that is always there and always available to us. As I…as I remind us often, it’s always there. So, no matter what’s going on, whether we’re just having a normal day or whether we’re…we’re just moving along, and the bottom falls out and we’re spinning upside down and we don’t know what’s going on or whether we’re having this mountaintop experience that we want to share with our brothers and sisters to encourage them. We can share. We can share back, and we can pray together. And, so, just be familiar with the Prayer Wall. That lives in the Community section, whether on the web or in the app.

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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:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible family this is Josh. I go by Living Daily in Him Today. I called in about a year and a half ago for my daughter who was struggling with anxiety and having an anxiety attack when moving into the dorms. I’m just happy to say that she is off of all medications. It’s been a long journey for her, but she is doing much better. Glory be to God. He is so faithful. But about a year ago she told us that she was pregnant and that there was lots of hard conversations and medical trips and finally last year she told us that she was going to be having twins. So, that was very not expected but the babies are doing excellent. They were born on January 12th. They spent about a month and ½ in the NICU. So, it was an awesome journey with her. But about a couple days ago they…her and her baby’s dad got into a little argument, and we just really want to lift them up. We know that it’s hard to go through anything like that especially when you’re not married and you’re not together. So, I just pray that you would just lift them up and be with us today. And dear God I also want to lift up Widespread Jesus. That is a huge blessing that you’ve been so encouraged, and we just want you to be able to glorified, and know that you can trust in Jesus and if you are faithful to Him he will show Himself faithful to you just like He has with me. I love you all have a great day.

Hey Daily Audio Bible I’m just calling about somebody who prayed for someone else who it was a lady who was struggling with her legs and then she just had to put her mom into a facility. So, yeah, just dear heart just know that you are loved and cared for. Yeah, there are just so many things going on, so many things happening so fast and sometimes it’s all we can do is just cry out to God to cling to Him. And, so, that’s what I’m asking you to do and anybody else. So, yeah, my mother passed away on March 1st and just…just being gone for a week so many things happened while I was gone. I mean it’s like unbelievable it’s like…just even trying to ingest. So…so…but I just wanna pray for everyone to just hang on just to cling on to Jesus. He's…He’s the only one that we can cling on to. He’s the answer. So, we thank you God and I thank you God for…for being able to pray and then being able to ask for prayer. So, in Yeshua’s name __. My friends, love you. Thank you so much…

Hi this is Victoria Soldier just calling to pray for some of the DABbers. I just wanted to pray for Blessing in California as she was saying that she was having a problem sleeping well and some of the challenges that she’s going through. And I wanted to pray for some of those that are going through depression and pray for our precious babies that are having some of the challenges that are coming on them with the schools and the…and the different direction and…and things that are directing them to something that’s saying it’s God but isn’t God. We just ask Lord in the name of Jesus You are the way the truth and the light. Father, You help them to see the light. You have Your way, Lord. Bless my precious sister who’s having a problem sleeping Lord. We ask You to have Your way, ask You to bless her with Your peace Lord. Give her such a sweet peace that she’ll sleep, that she will sleep with a sleep that is sweet and peaceful Father. In the name of Jesus, we ask that You continue to have Your way. Continue to bless Kingdom Seeker, Kingdom…Lady of Victory and my brother Tony…Blind Tony, my precious brother, Blind Tony and Joe the Protector and God’s Smile and my sister the Encourager, my precious sister the Encourager. Lord, continue to bless her, continue to encourage her God, continue to open doors, give life and favor to Your people, to all of Your DABbers Father and bless them in a mighty and special way. Let Your divine will be done in their life and all will give You the glory. Continue to bless Brian in being a grandfather and Jill as being a new grandmother again in Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Hello, my DAB family this is Jamie in New Jersey Standing on the Word of God. I humbly ask you to please pray with me. Dear Father in heaven thank You for the establishment of Your church. Thank You for placing us with a body of believers who care about us and are willing to pray and believe alongside us for the desires of our hearts. It is such an amazing blessing to have a church family we can share life’s up and downs with and who help us grow stronger in our faith. Help Your church show itself strong and mighty in this dark world. Thank You for loving and choosing us in Christ to be wholly and without fault in Your eyes even before You made the world. Please help us keep our relationship strong, unified, and loving in the body so we can always find You amongst us. You have promised that if there are two of us calling Your name You are with us binding our hearts and blessing our souls with Your presence. Father, help Your church body to walk in a manner worthy of the calling You have given us. Help us in all our interactions with one another to have humble and gentle hearts. Grant us patience for one another bearing with one another in love. Let us truly reflect Your love to the world around us we pray in Jesus’ name Amen. Thank you for praying along with me my brothers and sisters. I love you all dearly. Have a good night.