Leviticus 4:1-5:19, Mark 2:13-3:6, Psalms 36:1-12, Proverbs 10:1-2
Today is the 17th day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s great, great, great to be here with you today for the last time from Rome, at least for now. This…a couple hours we’ll be boarding the flight over to Tel Aviv and then getting about the business of preparing for the Daily Audio Bible pilgrimage 2020. So, thank you for your continued prayers. Definitely been battling the fatigue but that’s just kind of…that’s part of it, but another day or two and we’ll be acclimated. Anyway, we’ve come here together to allow God’s word to wash into our lives and to carry us forward into this week. And, so let’s do that. We’re reading from the New International Version this week and we have begun the book of Leviticus and I…I think it was yesterday…I think it was yesterday I mentioned this, you know, this is a book of the law. So, we’re kind of reading a law book, So, we could go, “well, this is…this is different. Like what…what happened? It got boring all the sudden” or whatever but we need to pay attention to the different literary styles that are going on. We love the narrative style, right, because it’s telling us a story. This happened, then this happened next, then this happened next and then there was this drama, and then this happened next, whereas now we’re…we’re kind of reading the ordinances and laws that will govern and…and actually create and hold together this people that God has chosen who He has brought into the wilderness so that he might dwell among His people, but also so that they might become acutely aware that there is no hope outside of God. So, today we’ll read Leviticus chapters 4 and 5.
Commentary:
Okay, let’s talk about the riveting story being told in the book of Leviticus right now. I understand it’s not a riveting story. It’s a lot to do with sacrifices and atoning for sin and it’s very involved. Like, there’s a lot of…a lot to do. So, what’s the deal here? Like the most high God likes to smell burning animal carcasses? Like He just…He loves and that’s why He wants all these sacrifices. Is that what’s going on here? We will find throughout the Scriptures that God will comment on this and tell us, “no” that’s not what He’s after. He has a people who are former slaves who have no idea how to be anything else who are a stiff necked and rebellious people who have already turned to false gods in the wilderness after all they saw God do to bring them out of Egypt and He’s trying to draw them to Himself and give them, bestow upon them an identity as chosen, no longer slaves, you are chosen. So, what could destroy all that? Like what would mess that plan up? Sin. It always messes the plan up. And, so, we’re seeing get kinda woven into the fabric of this new culture. Sin is a big deal. It’s complicated. There’s a lot to do. But it’s also costly. So, we can like read the book of the law, we can read the laws and here’s a people are supposed to do and we can just be like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah but let’s personalize this…like…let’s make this personal. We’re out in the desert and as the Bible has said today, we…we discovered, we…we realized that we had rebelled against God in some way. So, we become aware that something is come between us and God. And our hearts, we feel it, we sense it, we know it, we need to repent, and a sacrifice is required in this new culture. And, so, we have to go to our flock, and we have to select a goat or sheep, whatever the case may be, we have to select a perfect one and there aren’t too many of those. And we’ve been raising, we’ve been raising this livestock, we’ve…we’ve been shepherding this livestock. They have names, they know our voice. We’re…we care for them and we have to take the perfect one and lead it to the altar and then we have to take its life right there. We would probably not walk away from that experience feeling really really awesome about our sin. We would be can continually reminded of the price of sin. We would be continually reminded that…that this rebellion that can live in us, that can…that can have us doing crazy things like worshiping false gods in the wilderness, this will destroy our relationship with God. And, so, he’s weaving it in. This is a big deal, a costly deal, a complicated deal because we need to be reminded how dangerous it is.
So, now Jesus has come and as we learn the Scriptures, He became the final sacrifice. So, we don’t need to keep a flock of goats just in case. We look to the cross. And…and in truth if we’re just…if we’re just honest here. Yes, we would not want to go back to a sacrificial system in any way whatsoever. But when you look at it in its context and what it is teaching, you understand that it is a continual reminder of how dangerous and devastating rebellion and sin against God can be. Now we look to the cross, but often we don't…often we don’t look to the cross and see the sacrifice upon that cross, dying in our place. So, yes, our sins are forgiven, but we should never forget what it cost. And we see that not forgetting what it cost is important to God because here in the Old Testament in Leviticus He’s bit building in a very tangible reminder.
Prayer:
Jesus, we thank You, we thank You for Your sacrifice. We take this moment as we’re…as we’re observing the giving of the law and…and sacrifices for sin, it brings us back to You. And we confess that so often we’re just…just taking it for granted…it’s just a foregone conclusion. Of course, we’ve been forgiven but we don’t often slow down and understand what it cost. So, we ask Holy Spirit that You would come and remind us throughout this day, that we would take it to heart, that…that this wouldn’t be something that we just grow jaded to, that we just get used to, that…that we would remember what it took to bring us our freedom. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the website, it’s home base, it’s where you find what going on around here.
So, yeah, what’s going on around here for the next bit is the pilgrimage, the annual pilgrimage that we take to the land of the Bible each year. So, we had a little stop for a couple of days to do some photography and filming in Italy in Rome and we were able to see a lot of just the archaeological ruins from the Roman empire time, really…really connecting those stories back into Israel. Israel, of course, at the time of Jesus was the province of Syria was the province of the Roman Empire. So, there are a good deal of Roman Empire artifacts and ruins in Israel as well. So, today we will fly over to Tel Aviv and then, yeah, begin unpacking and getting ready for the excursion we’re gonna be on.
Tomorrow evening is our inaugural dinner and kinda orientation. And that’s always so fun finally to get everybody completely wide-eyed and wired on adrenaline but completely like backwards in their body clock. It’s just such…so…such a strange sensation but such fun. And, so, we’re looking forward to that. I will be making what I believe will be my final attempt to get to the ancient ruins of this Philistine stronghold known in the Bible as Akron. And years past…those of you like that have been around the Daily Audio Bible for several years, you’ll know…like we’ve made two different attempts because there are five Philistine cities spoken of in the Bible and we filmed three of them. And Akron is the fourth one. The fifth one is Gaza and that’s not anywhere near safe to go to and from what I understand there’s really nothing…there’s no archaeology there. So, I’ve been trying to get the…the…the…the film and the…the photographs of this place for several times but it's…like there are lots and lots of archaeological sites in Israel. And…but not all of them are accessible or visitible. You have to like go out in a four-wheel-drive way out somewhere and this is…this is kind of one of them and we’ve been stuck twice, two different years having to get pulled out of fields by tractors, last year being the most recent attempt. This year I’m pretty sure we are prepared. So, that’ll be tomorrow on the way down to Ashdod where we will all meet up and begin our journey.
So, thank you to everyone out there for your continued prayers over all of this. We’ll need it. We’ll need it every single day and we appreciate it more than you know.
I’ll remind you the Israel 2021 pilgrimage is now…we’re now…we’re now receiving registrations for next year’s trip, which is about a year from now. All of our Daily Audio Bible events and trips fill up pretty fast. This this one will probably be mostly, if not completely full by the time we get back. So, yeah, you can check it out at dailyaudiobible.com. Look in the Initiatives section and you’ll find Israel 2021 and you’ll get all of the details, everything that you would need to know. And, yeah, looking forward to seeing you next year in Jerusalem.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, thank you, thank you, thank you. I can’t thank you enough. We wouldn’t be here if we weren’t in this together. So, I thank you. There is a link on the homepage. 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.
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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:
Hey DABber family my name’s Mark from Columbus Ohio and I’ve called and once. I’m still relatively new, just started listening last summer __ participate with this family being able to start the day off with the word of God has…has…has been quite…quite…beneficial to me. And I am a COPD…end-stage COPD I’ve been diagnosed and as I’m calling for prayer because I need faith. And I worked so hard last summer to…to qualify for __ reduction surgery and my CO2 levels would go down and stay down. Now they’ve tried to __ have a transplant team. They’re telling me that one of the reasons…one of the qualifications is I need someone to take care of me 24 hours a day, you know, 24 day care after surgery but they do want it to be anyone from a healthcare agency, they want it to be a family or friend, you know, a family member or friend. And I’m…I’m not, you know, I don’t have that, you know. And I guess they all have their own agenda. I just, you know, and not being able qualify for this LVIS last summer, not being able to meet the requirements of this other thing, it just doesn’t do a whole lot for my faith. You know, I keep inquiring, I keep asking God what His will is and I just…I don’t know…I don’t know. You know, He knows what I’m trying to do, He knows my hopes, He knows my dreams __ you know…
Hi family this is Janice calling from Goodyear Arizona and I just have an encouragement for sweet Laura B in Boynton Beach. Sweetie your message for your friend Ricky really touched my heart and I have put him in my prayer book, and I promise to keep praying for Ricky and yourself that you are and encourager as I try to be. So, God bless you honey. And on another note my husband David who fell and got a concussion and went into a coma, he has a doctor’s appointment today. The doctors are just freaked out because the brain bleed is gone and there was no swelling and he’s back to his old self. So, praise God and thank you for your prayers. I love you all and I’ll be in touch again soon. God bless you.
Good morning DAB family this is Terry from Kansas City and I think I’d love to change my name to Blessed by Jesus. I used to live in Albuquerque for almost 34 years and so this morning on February 11th as I heard Marlowe from Albuquerque, Marla I felt that I know you and I could just feel a connection about being a little socially awkward, you call it social anxiety and that’s how I should refer to it for you. I was so excited to hear that God had allowed you to feel comfortable meeting Suzanne and my prayer for you is that you will continue to be able to reach out to her and that God will move you forward and give you wonderful days meeting wonderful people and that is my prayer for you. And also, God’s Little Bird, I was a substitute teacher for many, many years and I can feel your angst in wanting to serve your students and do that and proclaim Christ in your actions and in the way that you love on them. I am praying that God will give you clarity as to what to do in your profession or whether or not to leave your profession but I challenge you to continue to serve your students in godly excellence knowing what He wants you to present to those students. And I want to remind you that you are planting seeds. Whether or not you’re able to see the fruit of your efforts I don’t know but somewhere down the line those students are going to shine because they had you as a teacher. I pray for your peace, your mental and spiritual protection while you’re in the classroom, and I pray that joy will be restored to you…
Hey Daily Audio Bible family I’m calling into pray for God’s Little Bird. Today is the 10th maybe…no it’s the 11th…today is the 11th. She called in, she’s a teacher, and she’s struggling because the kids that come through…and it’s interesting that she called when she did because immediately before her, I think it was immediately before her, a woman called and prayed for the kids in the Daily Audio Bible listeners…but I just wanted to give you some encouragement God’s Little Bird. God is using you. As a Christian teaching kids in this country you are so, so, so, so, so important. So, it’s…it’s not going to be easy because you have to stand as…as a pillar of light in just an absolute hurricane because people who suddenly refuse to believe God instill those values into their kids and their kids go out into school and eventually the workplace and they may never come into contact with a Christian who could be the difference between life and death, between heaven and hell. So, I just want to encourage you that if you can be a witness to even one of those kids then every day of the decades that you will have invested in this career will be so worth it. And we will see that child in eternity. So, I encourage you to pray about it, but please just know that on behalf of an older sister to kids in the school system that I am so grateful for teachers like you. God bless you. Bye.
[singing starts] One peace like a river attendeth my way when sorrows like sea billows roll. Whatever my lot thou has taught thee to say it is well, it is well with my soul [singing ends]. Father God thank You that we can say that when we are in the midst of the storms of this life. Father God thank You so much for this day. I pray Lord that You would be going before us and preparing it for us, that You’d be giving us strength and energy and courage to face this day, that You’d also be giving us patience to wait upon You and to listen to You. Thank You for what You are teaching us this day. Thank You for Your blessings this day. Thank You for those opportunities. Lord it’s so easy to get dragged down into the misery of…of the world and the general drudge of living as it can feel sometimes. Help us to fix our eyes upon You. Help us to keep running forward, moving forward towards the goal. In Jesus’ holy and precious name. Amen. Hi guys, Michaela from Gloucester. Hope You have a blessed day wherever You are.