Numbers 8:1-9:23 ~ Mark 13:14-37 ~ Psalm 50:1-23 ~ Proverbs 10:29-30
Today is the 7th day of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and I am thrilled that we can be here another day and take another step forward in the scriptures this week, this month, and this year. This week we’ve planted ourselves in the Good News Translation, so we will move back out where we’ve been following the children of Israel. We’ve been encamped because the law and the customs and the rituals of this new culture that God is creating is being formed. Yes, there is a lot of detail, but I guess if you imagine yourself sitting down and putting pencil to paper and you’re going to outline what a new culture would look like, you would fill up the pages pretty quickly. So we’ll go back out for another look into what God reveals next. Numbers chapter 8, verse 1 through 9:23.
Commentary
In the book of Numbers today, God is talking about how to place lamps and how to purify and dedicate the entire tribe of Levi, the Levites and then questions about the anniversary of the Passover and who can celebrate it and how and what to do if you’re unclean. And then we get to this passage about the way God has been leading his people. Cloud by day. Fire by night. Which would have been an amazing thing to see, but what God is showing them is this is how I will lead you forward. This is how you will know where to go. So according to the book of Numbers, sometimes the cloud stayed over the tent for only a few days. And then they would stay there for a few days and if it was two days, then they would stay there for two days. Then when it moved, they would move. Or a month. Or a year. Or longer. As long as the cloud remained over the tent, they did not move on. But when it lifted, then they did move on.
Here’s the thing. All those years ago, as God was reshaping, renaming, and completely changing the identity of a people he had chosen out, as he is doing that, as he is doing all this reformation, embedded in that is how he is going to lead them forward, how they will know: His presence hovering over the tabernacle.
Now, the tabernacle is gone. And what replaced it was the temple. We haven’t gotten to that yet, but the temple or temples are also gone except that they are not. You are the temple of the Holy Spirit as am I, according to the scriptures. The cloud by day and the fire by night hasn’t left us. We just see it differently now. The cloud is the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives. Now if we would connect the dots here and understand that he will lead but we must follow, then when he stays for a day, we stay for a day. And when he moves out after two days, we move out. And if it is a year, then it is a year. And if it is longer, then it’s longer. We can be led by the same Spirit of God that embodied a cloud in the wilderness almost 4000 years ago because it is the same Spirit of God that now dwells within us. We no longer have to offer sacrifices. We are the sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. God was not only speaking to them and communing with them in a way that they could understand in their cultural context, he was also foreshadowing that this is how it works. So he is embedding into the remaking of this culture the story of who we are because we had and have forgotten what it was like to be sinless and perfect in a land of Eden so long ago. There are all of these reminders of our true identity as God is renaming and re-identifying these chosen people. This is what he has done for us. This is the story of the gospel. We have been renamed. We have a new identity. Divinity and humanity are re-intertwined within us. The Spirit of the Living God within – this is how we were made. This is how it was always supposed to be for us and it is available now because God came in the person of Jesus and rescued us from the slavery that we were in.
Boom! All of a sudden we realize that this isn’t a bunch of different stories. This is the story, the roadmap back to who we were created to be. And that roadmap is clear. It’s just a narrow path, a narrow path that leads to life and few find it. May we be among the few that find it because this story is going on and on and we are a part of that story – the redemption of all things, the returning of a people to its God. The restoration of a species created in the image of God, that is what we are. Image bearers.
This should be like head exploding stuff that should be followed by sober moments of realization that we are living way smaller than we were created to be. It’s just all we’ve ever known, so we’ve assumed it’s all there is. But it’s not. There is more. In the end Eden will be restored. In the end all things will be made new. Our job isn’t to just try to be good boys and girls and wait for that to happen. Our job is to be a part of it happening. And this is why Jesus told us to go tell everybody the good news. Everything is changed. The story has taken a turn. Restoration is available. A return to who we were, taken out of slavery, renamed, re-identified as chosen is ours. My goodness friends, this should change our lives. I mean, this should change and touch everything.
Prayer
Father, it’s incomprehensible, your intentionality, your patience, your kindness, you’re willing to look long down the road and see redemption and put a plan into place that continually reminds us who we are. So we’re waking up. We’re waking up and we need your Holy Spirit like a cloud by day and a fire by night to lead us on the narrow path that leads to life. This is what we’re in search of, but we realize that we’re not as smart as we think we are and we don’t know as much as we think we do. So often that is what we’re doing, putting everything into a box, making it tidy and trying to own the box when you’re saying there is no box. There is no end. And there is no end to what we can do together. So come, Holy Spirit, because we need you in this. Without the cloud to guide us, we don’t know where to go. And the truth is, you have guided us and we’ve ignored where you’re going, but we’re paying attention now because you’re waking us up. So come, Holy Spirit, and lead us forward. We ask in the name of Jesus. 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 Requests and Praise Reports
Hello, good morning Daily Audio Bible family. This call is for Max dealing with depression, who is getting ready to come off the medication. Max, I was in your shoes in the same position that you’re in about seven years ago and Max, if you’re serious about coming off this medication, know two things. One, that the enemy is going to come after you. And two, you need to be in God’s word as often as you possibly can because what my experience taught me was that the enemy would utilize events in your life against you. He will make you feel like it was your fault. He will make you feel like you can’t be forgiven. He will make you feel like you need to do things to yourself to harm yourself to get repentance and receive forgiveness from God, and that is not of God. That is not of God. So understand this. If you are going through with this and you are seriously going to come off of this medication, you need to surround yourself with some godly men. And you need to surround yourself with praying men. And you need to surround yourself with men who are in the word of God. If you can’t find that, I’m here for you. My email address is JAMAINEPITTS@gmail.com. Brother, I’m here for you. You need to figure out what the real issue is behind your depression. With my depression, I didn’t forgive my mother for what she did to me as a child and I had to forgive her. I had to. And I had to mean it in my heart. So I’m here for you. God bless you.
Hello Daily Audio Bible. My name is Adonaia. Thrilled to call. It’s the first time and I listen every day and I love all the community, all the people that call and ask for prayer and call praising God. I’m in love with you guys and thank you so much, Brian and family, for this beautiful place that we can get together. Thank you. Bye.
Hi, it’s Barb calling from Canada. I have good and bad news. Good news is I am the brand new grandmother of a sweet baby boy named Maverick who was born four days ago. But he has suffered a stroke and he has some bleeding in his brain. They are checking for more clotting today in the brain with an MRI, if they can get another line in, which seems to be kind of difficult. And they are also worried about another disease that is very rare that is called (I’m not going to be able to pronounce this correctly), it’s almost like hyperglycemia, but it’s hyperglycosemia or something. Anyway, it’s really not good. So I’m praying that he actually doesn’t have that and that God will just continue to give my daughter and her husband the peace that passes all understanding. She has been so amazingly there already. Thank you for praying for Maverick and for Cassidy and Nate. Thank you so much. Bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family. This is James, the teacher in LA. I’ll be brief. So there is a student of mine. I’ve had him three out of the last four years. And I had him as a freshman. He is now a senior and he has been through a lot of just really troubling stuff. At this point he has been kind of facing some depression that has gotten pretty crippling, but he’s really brilliant, in my humble opinion, and I asked him if it was okay to share this. But he’s basically gotten to the point where he has looked to every other thing that he can get help from and I told him, you know, if you’re willing to accept it, it’s not just your mind and your body that need to be taken care of, but your spirit. And I shared with him the possibility of having a real relationship with God through Jesus and he said that if it was from anyone else he wouldn’t necessarily listen, but he’s actually considering it. Pray for him, guys. He said specifically I should ask you to pray that he find what he is looking for. So please pray for him guys. Thank you. Love you guys. Bye.
Hey family. It’s Jordan from Michigan and I’m back. I want to apologize that I’ve been gone for this amount of time and while I was trying to come up with excuses for why I haven’t, I don’t have any. I just haven’t been wise enough with my time and need to devote more time to spending with my DAB family. I just wanted to call and check in with all of you and let you know I’m doing fine and that I’m back listening to the prayers. I love you all so much. Everything that you’ve done for me will never be forgotten but always appreciated. I was just talking with Salvation is Mine on the phone and she just really put it on my heart that it is time for me to call back in just to let you all know that I’m here, I love you, and that you mean so much to me. I thank Yeshuah for bringing us together. Have a wonderful day.