Deuteronomy 23:1-25:19, Luke 10:13-37, Psalms 75:1-10, Proverbs 12:12-14
Today is April 3rd. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It is my pleasure, just a joy to come around the global campfire, come in out of the cold, come in out of the dark, throw another log on and gather together and let God’s word wash over and speak to us as we just step away from whatever else the chaos of life may be bringing our way and center ourselves in this space in this time and hear from God through His word. So, we’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week and our next step forward will take us back into the book of Deuteronomy. Today we’ll read chapters 23, 24, and 25.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in the gospel of Luke today Jesus told a very famous story, the parable of the Good Samaritan and oh gosh this parable is so loaded and so pertinent to our lives it’s remarkable. So, just quickly understanding who Samaritans were is a little bit helpful but at this point in the year it’s not completely apparent because all the stories that lead us to who Samaritans are haven’t been told yet. So, briefly, the children of Israel are going to make their way into the promised land. You probably know that and they’re gonna settle the promised land. You probably know that too and there’s gonna be seasons that are good and seasons that are not so good, which will eventually lead them to having kings, which will eventually lead them to split into two different nations known as the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom of Israel, which is 10 tribes, will eventually be conquered by the Assyrian Empire and they will be carried away into exile. This is the way the empires built the empires or one of the ways. They would conquer a people and then relocate them forcibly into another part of the Empire while moving other conquered peoples into the land that was previously vacated, like, moving people around, mixing them all up so that over the course of a generation or two people would stop remembering who they used to be and only know themselves as part of the Empire. So, when Assyria conquered the northern kingdom and displaced a lot of them and moved a bunch of other people in, what came in was a lot of different religious practices and idolatry. So, the people are worshiping however they’re gonna worship but there’s problems with that. And, so, they request that a priest of Yahweh be brought back to teach them how to worship the God of this land. The problem is that the priest that they bring back…like the priests of the northern kingdom have already been practicing a very, very skewed version of the worship of Yahweh, of the worship that’s happening in Jerusalem in the Temple. This is because the first King of the northern kingdom, his name was Jeroboam. He built two temples and put a golden calf in each one of them and had the people worship this golden calf as Yahweh. And, so, it just got all messed up as you can imagine. So, by the time we get to Jesus time this land is very different and the people are worshiping very differently, and they become Samaritans because the northern kingdom’s capital and its land was known as Samaria. So, those being Orthodox and true down in Jerusalem, they never looked at the Samaritans as anything but, you know, people to not be trusted, people who had a very, very strange way of trying to practice the same worship. And, so, they avoided, they looked down upon, they stayed away from the Samaritans. So, getting back to the story Jesus is telling, there’s the man saying, “what do I need to do to have eternal life”? Jesus asks him a really, really interesting question, “how do you read it? In other words, here’s God talking to a person and asking him how he reads the Bible or the Scriptures. Fascinating. And the man says, “what is true, if you love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and you love your neighbor as yourself then you’ve fulfilled the law.” That’s still true today. That’s, what we’re supposed to be doing. And Jesus affirms that. And then the man’s like, “who is my neighbor?” That’s what launches Jesus into the story of the good Samaritan. And this road between Jerusalem and Jericho, this is a very, very ancient road still visible today and it winds through a very, very deep, dark valley, very dangerous place to be. And even today, you can see many parts of that and kinda, from different angles, begin to understand, yeah, that's…there’d be all kinds of…there’s nowhere to run and lots of places to hide. So, very dangerous road indeed. So, Jesus is kind of critiquing the religion of the time, the Hebrew religion, by placing a priest and a Levite who step around a very injured man and he makes the Samaritan the hero of the story, which is so counter cultural and, like, such a disruptive message at the time because these were people that were not trusted, people that shouldn’t be the heroes of the story. And, so, in effect Jesus saying, to love your neighbor as yourself is to look around you and see anyone whether they’re your perceived enemy or whether you don’t understand them or whether their people group is foreign to you or whether they’re worshiping in a completely different way from you. If you find a human being that it is in your power to help in some sort of way even if that’s just a smile, then you should do it. That would be loving your neighbor as yourself.
Prayer:
Father, there are endless opportunities for this. It just forces us to be aware because we are so focused on the obligations and responsibilities of any given day that we’re just trying to maintain our lives and we don’t really have time to be paying attention to anything else. And, so, we’re recognizing again, even as we continue to move through this season of Lent that we are humbling ourselves before You, laying all of the obligations and responsibilities of our lives before You and asking You to reorder and reprioritize us, removing things that don’t need to be in our lives anymore, putting things in that do belong so that we can have a life that is something that can be maintained while still having the freedom to follow Your Holy Spirit and be observant about loving our neighbors as we love ourselves because it’s not just about people with cardboard signs on sides of roads. It’s anyone, anywhere, anytime that is in need when we observe it. So, come Holy Spirit. And during this season of Lent we commit to paying more attention to this but what we’re asking is for a life that has space to live, space to actually be Your hands and feet in this world instead of just space where we’re just juggling all of the balls trying to keep them in the air, trying to maintain an oversized life when there is freedom waiting for us and an adventure with You if we would simply allow You to show us what is a priority. Come Holy Spirit into these issues we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, its home base, its where you find out what’s going on around here.
I was thinking about this parable and just thinking about how many different vantage points of seeing this rift. It’s basically…it’s the Kidron valley that runs through Jerusalem and the valley runs, winds all the way down to Jericho. And yeah, it’s a treacherous place. There’s a longer conversation about this parable and about what we’ve just been talking about today, an entire chapter is devoted to this story found in my book Sneezing Jesus, which is available wherever you can get books, including dailyaudiobible.com or audiobooks, wherever you get audiobooks. It’s worth it…it’s worth it to listen to a read if you want to go deeper into this story and that resource is available at dailyaudiobible.com or pretty much anywhere.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com. There is a link. It lives on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. I thank you profoundly and with all gratitude for those of you who have clicked that link. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner or, if you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.
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:
Hi Cherry Chase, this is Betsy from Indiana. I heard your voice today and I was so sad because you are such a shining and bright energetic light for our family and I’m sad that there is such imperfect humans that are leading you to feel at your workplace that it is a difficult as it is and I just pray that the Lord will help open up your eyes to see what’s really going on with those imperfect people and bring that to a resolution that is tolerable for you. Also, Christine with the bumpy dog, I wanted to let you know I’ve been praying for you and thinking of you almost every day during this time of transition. You mentioned it’s really a time of waiting between treatments and I know that can be difficult. I kind of was thinking the other day that I could say I was…your Christie with the bumpy dog and I could be Betsy with a bumpy life and I think all of us can probably relate to that. And I also wanted to shout out to Mary Lynn who has now dubbed what I can only think of as the vacuum ministry. I loved your call, I love your idea. I put my headphones in the other day when I needed to vacuum, and I thought of you and I thought of our community and I loved your suggestion. And also, Scott from Alaska, safe travels to you. Thanks for your insights about traveling this road of life and how often we can see that far into it. I love you all and hope you have a good week.
This Protected by His Wings in Virginia. Thank you, Jesus Christ for giving up your perfect life for my sinful one. Thank you, Brian and Jill that all those behind the scenes for this wonderful podcast, such a blessing to my life. Since I’ve started listening about eight months ago to the Daily Audio Bible there have been several callers involving singleness, loneliness, seeking a mate, have been seeking a mate but it ended, followed a potential mate to another state but it did work out, all asking for prayer and God’s direction. I’ve been all of you. If you’re willing to hear this, here is my advice. Never follow a potential mate. All husbands follow a wife. If they or you are not committed to marriage, they are not someone you should follow. If you start dating someone and then ask God to bless it, don’t expect Him to do so. Instead, ask God’s advice before you ask someone out on a date or you say yes to someone whose asked you on a date. First John 5:14, “Now this is the confidence we have before him. Whenever we ask for anything according to His will He hears us. James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly so that you may spend it on your own desires.” Psalms 66:18, “If I had been aware of malice in my own heart, the Lord would not have listened.” Thanks be to God who loves us so much He gave us His only begotten son and who should ever believe on him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Good morning family this is Erin from Michigan. Let’s pray. Father God I thank You for this day. I thank You for the fact that You are the great Creator and through we You we are able to create also. I thank You Lord God that You are the lover of all people, all nations, all hues, all groups Lord God. Help us to grow in Your love. I lift up Cherry Chase to You today Lord God. I lift up her pain. I lift up the trouble that she’s having at work Lord God. I pray for these people who are using their race, prejudice, and the power that they have behind them to harm Cherry Chase Lord God. I lift You up and thank You for her. Thank for creating her Lord God and thank You for her voice. I thank You for her heart and her mind Lord God. I thank You for her perseverance and her strong faith in You Lord God. I ask You to bind the demons of racism. Lord God I ask You to bind it and send it to the pit of hell. I acknowledge before You and all of my family Lord God that racism is a total afront to Your holiness. You have created us as one race Lord God, the human race Lord God and I know it breaks Your heart. I ask You to help it to break our hearts as well Lord God. I ask You not to let us shy away from this issue that will define us Lord God. If we say nothing when others are __ to do something but You never meant to divide us Lord God. I ask You, break our hearts Lord God. I lift up Cherry Chase. Help her to be strong Lord God, help her to feel Your presence, Your patients, Your abundance Lord God, Your perseverance. I pray for Cherry Chase Lord God. I thank You for the Daily Audio Bible. I thank You for Brian Lord God and I pray that You make us bold, bold in Your name against the demons of racism Lord God. Help us to be bold. Help us to speak Your name and show Your love. Thank You…
Hi everyone, this is Liz calling from Toronto. I have been listening to the Daily Audio Bible since January the share but today for the first time I listened to the community prayer in its entirety and I’ve got to tell you for the first time I feel like I feel the fullness of the family of all you DABbers. I now have a really great understanding of the prayers that we hear daily and the names of some of the callers that make it a regular practice. I think it’s awesome. I know it’s a three-hour commitment, but I would encourage everyone to listen in and find a way to hear all of the prayers and praise reports. I certainly will from now on. So, I have a praise report and a request for today. I called in the beginning of February I think it was to ask for prayer for the journey that my son Nathaniel is on with his search for a new school as he was transferring to a soccer program at Syracuse University. Well, praise God, it looks like he’ll be committing to the University of Alabama Birmingham on a full tuition scholarship. So, thank you so much for very for your prayers. Its very far from home but as I listened to the community prayer today I heard about five or six colors from Alabama. So, I’m reminded of how God covers us in the body of Christ, right? So, that’s very encouraging to me. I would also like to lift up in prayer my dear friend, Linda. She’s suffering from a shoulder injury that’s causing some really severe pain right now. She recently took the step to retire from a long career in a hairdressing and she’s relying on working from home to support her financially. So, the shoulder injury is preventing her from cutting hair. She can’t lift her arm up. Her rent is due tomorrow. She lives alone. So, please pray that she’ll be healed, and that God would give her a renewed sense of his provision. Thank you, Daily Audio Bible family. I love you and bye for now.