Deuteronomy 4:1-49, Luke 6:39-7:10, Psalms 68:1-18, Proverbs 11:28
Today is the 25th day of March. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It’s great to be here with you as we dive into this workweek and sail through to the end of this week and to the end of this month and we’ll be selling through the book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament and then the book of Luke as we continue our journey through the New Testament. So, today we will continue with Moses final discourses, the final things that he has to say to the children of Israel before he becomes a part of their history and they move across the Jordan toward the promised land. And this is what the book of Deuteronomy is. So, today we will read Deuteronomy chapter 4 and we’re reading from the Good News Translation this week.
Commentary:
Okay. So, as we talked about when we began the book of Deuteronomy, the book itself contains the final three conversations or discourses or talks that Moses had before the entire community of Israel. And, so, today we concluded the first of those three discourses and Moses was reminding the people of the fact that they were in a covenant with God and how vital it was to remember, to remember to obey the covenant. Moses said, “search the past, the time before you were born all the way back to the time when God created human beings on the earth. Search the entire earth. Has anything as great as this ever happened before? Hss anyone ever heard of anything like this?” And then Moses reiterated the fact that there’s only one God and all of the invitations that they might come into contact with throughout their generations to worship lesser things, these temptations would come but if they would remember who they were and how they got where they were and who God truly is then they will prosper in the land. I mean, the unfortunate thing is this isn’t always going to be the story for them, but we struggle with the very same things. And, so, as we continue with the story of the children of Israel, we will continue to basically be exposing our own hearts. So, we remember Moses telling the children of Israel, “obey all of the laws that I’m giving you, all of the terms of this covenant.
And then we get into the book of Matthew and we see Jesus speaking of these same kinds of struggles. He says, “why do you keep calling me Lord, Lord, when you don’t do what I say?” So, Jesus was offering teachings and a worldview that would lead people to peace and wholeness, which is what Moses was doing. And if we want this wholeness we have to remember the same things that the children of Israel to remember, the same things that Moses is trying to instill into them and into their culture going forward are the same things we have to remember - who we are, how we got here and who the one true God is - because this is the way life is supposed to work. The problem usually happens when we want to be that sovereign God, right, when we want to fashion our own lives however we want to but then we start fashioning them in ways that will not work and then when they don’t work we want to blame God, like we want don’t want to be the sovereign anymore because He’s the Sovereign and it’s gotta be His fault. So, when we behave like that, in ways that make us the sovereign then we have forgotten who we are, how we got here and who God is. And this has always been the human condition, right, since early in the story of Genesis almost 3 months ago now. So, these discourses in the book of Deuteronomy, they are Moses certainly saying what he needs to say, but they are also Moses pleading with the children of Israel to not forget. Jesus was doing the same thing with people of his time and both of their words are calling to us from the Bible today in our time, right now. So, in ancient, ancient times Moses is telling the children of Israel, “if you’ll listen to what I’m telling you and you will obey this I am showing you the pathway that will lead you to life and the promise, the life you were intended and created to live.” We have Jesus saying the same kinds of things to the people He was ministering to. And through that ministry we have Jesus speaking to us today telling us the same thing. So, here these words from Jesus. “Anyone who comes to me and listens to my words and obeys them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man who in building his house, dug deep and laid the foundation on rock. The river flooded over and hit that house but could not shake it because it was well built.”
Prayer:
Jesus, it is our desire that be a description of our lives and this is all possible because You spoke this from Your own lips and the criteria is that we will listen to Your words and obey them. So, we have a role to play in this, this is a collaboration and we have to do our part knowing full well that You will do Your part. Come Holy Spirit because, as Moses was pleading with the children of Israel and as we have advanced knowledge of their story, they forget what he told them. That is our story too. We often forget who we are, how we got here, and who You are. So, come Holy Spirit, plant the words deep in our lives so that they are reverberating in our souls continually, so that we are always listening to Your words. Help us Holy Spirit. We surrender our will to You so that we might obey Your words. And the repercussions of that will be that we will be built on a firm foundation. 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.