Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25 ~ Luke 7:11-35 ~ Psalm 68:19-35 ~ Proverbs 11:29-31
Today is the 26th day of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’ is great to be here with you as we turn the knob, open the door, step through the threshold into a brand new week, releasing everything that is behind us and looking forward to everything that is to come. This week we’ll read from the Common English Bible and pick up where we’ve left off in the book of Deuteronomy where Moses is giving his final three talks, the final things that he will say to the children of Israel, the way he will charge them as they go forward before he recedes into history. Deuteronomy chapter 5, verse 1 through 6:25.
Commentary
As Moses speaks to the children of Israel and puts a weightiness behind his words, because these are the last things he is going to say and he will pass the torch of leadership on, we can see the urgency, the urgency that he has for the people that he has led out of Egypt through the wilderness to the precipice once again of crossing the Jordan into the promised land. So he is certainly reviewing their history and the law and it is great review for us because we’ve spent ample time working our way to this point. But what he is telling them is timeless. He is saying, “Look, the wilderness has been long and we have stayed here longer than we needed to. We have seen God in his glory on our behalf in so many ways, in so many situations. He has sustained us. We are still here. After a whole generation of wandering in the desert, we’re still here and we’re ready to go in. But you need to think about what that is going to look like. Because it has been the point we have focused on for so long, just getting across the Jordan out of the wilderness, into the land of promise.”
“When you get there, you’re going to find that the land is beautiful and it has wonderful towns that you didn’t have to build and houses that have stuff in them that you didn’t put there and cisterns for your water that you didn’t dig and vineyards and olive groves that you didn’t plant, so all of a sudden things will rapidly shift. You’ll move out of the wilderness into the promised land and he will have to fight for that promised land but you will be victorious. And then it is going to get easy. You’ll be at peace. You’ll have homes. You’ll have plenty. You won’t be wandering anymore, wondering if one of the nearby nations might attack you, wondering where the next meal is coming from, wondering what the future might look like. That will have been answered. It is then that you find your great test.”
“Watch yourself,” Moses said. “Don’t forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. Revere the Lord your God. Serve him. Take your solemn pledges in his name. Don’t chase other gods, those gods of the people around you because the Lord your God who is with you and among you is a passionate god. The Lord your God’s anger will burn against you. Don’t test the Lord your God. You must carefully follow him.”
That is timeless. And if we will look at our lives, and maybe some of us are in the wilderness right now, longing for that point, focusing on that point where we can cross over out of the wilderness and into promise, but we’ve all gone through those seasons, isn’t it true that once we get out of that season, out of focusing all of our attention on God and walking through that season, that, yes, indeed, things get easy, comfortable, and we forget and then we keep forgetting until we have walked right back into the wilderness again?
Moses has the foresight to warn these people of what will be the greatest challenge, a greater challenge than the wilderness itself, the challenge of remembering the Lord their God when everything is going wonderful.
And this is our challenge and so may we take heed. We can remember this moment of contemplation now. We can remember this. We can remember to remember God. We’re going to get to see what this actually looks like both ways, with God and without God. So may we remember this moment, this moment of warning that Moses gave the children of Israel and through them is giving us because the paths will be laid out for us and we are continually choosing one or the other.
Prayer
Holy Spirit, we invite you into that now because we’re going to see this greater theme unfold before us in the coming weeks and months. We invite you into this now because we can look at our own lives and see that this is true. Help us, God, to not forget. We stay so close to you in the wilderness just asking for relief and then you come in your mercy and kindness and rescue us and we have a bad habit of abandoning you and that is so sad. It is so heartbreaking. And that isn’t the story we want to be telling. That is not the story we want to be telling to the world and it is not the story we want to be telling while we’re in the world. The story we want to be involved in is one of intimacy with you in all things, at all times, in all places, in all circumstances, that we are intertwined and inseparable. So forgive us for the ways that we have abandoned you in thought, word, and deed by what we have done and by what we have left undone. Forgive us. Have mercy upon us. We return to you. We walk with you. You are the hope of the world. You are the hope of our lives and the story we want to be telling is one of friendship, one of intimacy, one of awe, one of reverence, one that never ends, one that is not waiting to begin, one that has begun and will never end. Come Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus’ name we ask, 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
Hi. It’s McKenzie calling from California. I just wanted to let all of you guys know that I’m praying for you and that there are people hearing your experiences and just wishing that God would __________ your lives in those hard times. I just wanted to share a quick experience with you guys and some quick words of knowledge. I recently attended a youth camp with our church and it was so eye-opening to me. I’m a believer and I love God and have always loved God since I was really little, but it was just such a different experience and I got to see God in a whole other way. I got to see him move within young people. I got to see him move within youth pastors, within older people. I got to pray for people. I saw kids who at the beginning of the camp refused to worship God, would cuss, talk inappropriately, dress inappropriately, by the end they wanted to get baptized and were worshipping God with all of their hearts. People were healed and it was so incredible. You can’t experience something like that and think that God is not alive and here with us. So sometimes that is easy to forget. Super easy to forget. Extremely, with difficult things going on in our lives. Like I have really bad anxiety so it was super difficult for me to go but I’m so happy I did because I just really got to experience God in a whole new way. I just want you guys to just always continue to love him and worship him through everything and just remember that God is there with you and he is there. With everything, call on him. Thank you guys. Love you. Bye.
Hey, Brian. This is Rich from Arkansas. First off, I wanted to say hello to Blind Tony who has been my friend since January 1st. Brian, I want to ask the family to reach out for me. I did 500 days’ sobriety and I went to New York for a job interview, guys, and I kind of fell on my feet and I don’t understand. Five hundred days of being sober and now I’m off. I’ve been following the Daily Audio Bible because, I mean, for anyone that deals with addiction, I would tell you that I believe there is a healing and I totally believe that Jesus can heal. This 12-step thing, I mean, I don’t know. I’m fighting with it, but I know that Jesus healed the blind in one step, so I think he can heal me too. So I hope this gets played. I’ve been following. Brian, you’ve been encouraging me. After your mom passed, I’ve been following through the book of Moses and the story about how Joseph was so in trouble.
Good morning family. This is Biola from Maryland. I hope you’re all doing well. Brian and Jill, God bless you. Know that you’ve been in my prayers every single day. And Lord, I just want to thank you for that More Conference. I thank you, O God, because your power and your anointing will be evident. Every woman that will be going, O Father, I pray in the name of Jesus that they will not remain the same. Holy Spirit, that you will come for your daughter’s hearts, in the name of Jesus. Teri from Delaware, I was so happy to hear all your testimonies and I pray that God will continue to put testimonies in your mouth, in the name of Jesus. Candace from Oregon, my sister, know that I prayed for you when I heard your prayer request and your heart’s cry. And I just prayed that God would comfort you, he would wrap his arms around you and your family, he would give you your heart’s desire at this time. Know that your husband is with the Lord and the Lord has a heart for the brokenhearted and he is there with you, sister, and he is grieving with you. God bless you, my sister. Valerie from Dallas, TX. I heard your prayer request with deep hurts in my heart. Father Lord, I pray for this sister, O God, Lord, and whatever is going on in her family, I arrest, O God, Lord, the work of the enemy even in that family, in the name of Jesus. Father, Lord, you said, O God, Lord, that they will come against us, O God. They will gather against us, O Lord, but every one that is gathered, every demon that is gathered against Valerie, O God, and her family in Texas, O God, and __________ will fall for her sake. I bind every work of evil in that family, in the name of Jesus, and release your grace, O God, your power even into that family. In Jesus’ name. Nicki from North Vancouver, I’m praying for your grandson Leif, that God would touch him in his heart of hearts that respects God, that respects authority, in Jesus’ name. Sidney, I prayed for your situation and I prayed for that young man. I arrest even that spirit of evil that you think is harassing him right now and I decree that it will be delivered, in the name of Jesus. God bless you.
Hi there, this is Jerrie from Wyoming, also known as __________. I’m currently in Orem, UT on my travels and just got done listening to Daily Audio Bible. It is March the 23rd I believe, 22nd, 23rd? Oh, I travel too much. I’ve just discovered how love works __________ through Daily Audio Bible. Oh my goodness, just to hear the beautiful voices of you all. It’s just such a blessing to me. And __________ just hearing the whole story of Candace. I’ve only been listening for a few months and hearing the beautiful voice of Candace sing and just hearing her and who she is, that is the voice of love. And then to have her go through what she has gone through with the death of her husband, but on the other side of that hearing the voice of love from you all in condolences and lifting her up and singing to her and blessing her and touching her family, that is the voice of love. It’s just taken me such a long time to learn how to love and be a love to others. The more I listen and the more I hear your voices speak out to others, I’m learning about love. And then hearing Candace rejoice in praise with you all and thanking you all for all the wonderful words that you have given her, that is the voice of love. It is wonderful to see the cycle of love given out and received and given back in return. I’m learning about love and it is through you all and…
Hi fellow Dabbers. It’s Joe the Protector from Georgia. It’s March 23rd, 8:00 in the morning. Just been listening to the prayers for our precious Candace from Oregon. Candace, I just want to lift you up as well and just cover you with many prayers over your loss. I’m sure it is such a heartache losing a close loved one like that and just going through the pain. You know in the end you are going to see him again. He is in a better place and so we just lift you up right now, though, as you’re going through the heartaches of it and your family. Just keep up those sweet songs you phone in. We all enjoy them. So anyhow, Tony from California, I believe, called in. Brother, want to lift you up in this time and struggle you’re going through as your career as a correctional officer is causing issues in your marriage. I can totally relate. As a 16-year law enforcement veteran, I went through the same issues, I’m sure. I was a correctional officer at one time and I know how they train you and how they teach you to react to situations. The way you’re taught to do that isn’t biblically based. I’m not saying that it is wrong, but it is just not…I don’t believe it is a godly thing to do. Anyhow, if you want to contact me, KellyJMcClendon@yahoo.com.
Good morning, this is Inez calling from Arizona. I just called to send my condolences to Candace and her family. I’m so sorry to hear about the loss in your family. I know that your husband is now in heaven and I rejoice with you in that, but I also am feeling a little bit sorrowful because of that loss. I don’t know you, but through Daily Audio Bible I do. Because you always share with us a song, I’m going to share a song with you also, Wonderful Peace. I’m going to sing the first part of it in Navajo. [Singing]