Ezekiel 20:1-49, Hebrew 9:11-28, Psalms 107:1-43, Proverbs 27:11
Today is the 9th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it’s wonderful to be here with you today as we launch into another workday, another work week and just continue the rhythm day by day step-by-step through the Scriptures. So, we’re reading from the God’s Word Translation this week. And, of course, what we do every day is pick up where we left off yesterday. And, so, that will lead us back into the book of Ezekiel in the Old Testament and Hebrews, of course, in the New Testament. Bit first, Ezekiel chapter 20.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we look to the Bible, like as…as followers, as disciples of Jesus Christ, we look to the Bible…well…for lots of things, but one primary thing that we look to the Bible for is to explain and express the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s what informs our faith. And we who are following Jesus, we bring into that…I mean we learn a bunch of stuff along the way that we may not even know what the symbolism means or where it came from, it’s just…this is what we do and this is kind of what it means. And, so, we follow the rituals and traditions. And I guess that would be true of any generational religion. Like you pass your faith onto your children, your children pass it on to their children and so on and so forth. And, so, maybe you’ve gone to the same kind of church for the last 150 years in your family or 200 years in your family for all you know, or maybe even longer but so much is passed down that’s just kind of tilled into the soil of our lives and under…understanding. But let’s for a moment just become aware of the fact that there was a moment in time, like in time as we understand time, that Jesus came into this world and began to speak of the kingdom of God and did His earthly ministry and lived His earthly life, and then died in Jerusalem on a cross. And then as the Scriptures tell us three days later was resurrected and then another 40 days go by and then He’s ascended to the Father and He’s gone, at least in terms of like an earthly view. Certainly, we understand that God is everywhere, that He is all in all, that there is nowhere we can run from His Spirit…like we understand these things. We look to the Scriptures to remind us of these promises and of these realities that we are supposed to live. But that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is there was a period of earth time that Jesus was here and then he ascended to the Father and then wasn’t. And we know from the book of Acts kind of the lay of the land and the coming of the Holy Spirit and the beginning of the spread of the good news of the gospel. At that point there was no like generational passing down of the Christian faith. This was like first generation believers, right? Are you with me so far? So, with these first-generation believers, they had nothing to precede them in telling them that this good news that was being preached to them was rooted in anything. They had to take this giant leap of faith that in some ways flew in the face of their own traditions that they had been raised in. And in this case, this is the chosen people of God, the Hebrew people, the Jewish people. This is who Jesus was. This was the context that he ministered in. Okay. So, let’s pause here for a second and try…not to forget…but just to kinda set aside for a second everything that we think we know about our faith. And I’m not saying like we’re discarding it, of course. I’m saying we’re push…pushing it over here to the side for second just to try to remember what it was like before we knew anything about the good news or anything about Jesus at all. That’s really difficult for me because Jesus is like woven into my life for as long as I can possibly remember. And many of you are like that too, but let’s just set aside what we think that we know for one second. And the exercise here isn’t like to challenge our faith. It’s simply to put ourselves in the position of people, the first generation of people to believe that Jesus was the son of God, the Messiah who died to take away the sins of the world. Okay, are you pretending? So, we’re pretending we don’t know anything about anything. Now I’m gonna read from Hebrews just a couple of sentences from the beginning of our reading today. “But Christ came as a chief priest of the good things that are now here. Christ went through a better more perfect tent that was not made by human hands and that is not part of this created world. He used His own blood, not the blood of goats and bulls for the sacrifice. He went into the most holy place and offered this sacrifice once and for all to free us forever.” Okay. That is a couple of sentences that explain the good news. But if you set aside what you think that you know and this is the first time you’re hearing this, wouldn’t you be saying, “what exactly are we talking about? Chief priest? Better, more perfect tent that wasn’t humanly made and isn’t a part of the created world? His own blood, not blood of bulls and goats? Sacrifice? Most holy place? What are we talking about?” And I’m gonna try to…I mean we could spend an hour talking about this and I wanna try to move us through but there are kind of two points to make here. Point number one is, the Christian faith that we share doesn’t make any sense divorced from its Jewish heritage. All of the things that we just talked about: chief priests, better perfect tent , not created by human hands, blood of bulls and goats, all of this stuff is rooted in Judaism, in the religion of the Jewish people begun with Abraham, then Isaac and Jacob and so on and so forth. The entire narrative of the Old Testament that we’ve been reading all year is what provides context for the things that are being said in Hebrews because Hebrews was written to Hebrews and without that context we have no rootedness in anything about why any of this symbolism represents anything that’s like earth changing in any way. So, if we’re reading through the Old Testament and you’re just like, “I don’t…man…can’t we get to the Jesus part? Like, can’t we get to some letters or something? Can’t we get to something that’s telling me more about how to live into my faith now instead of reading these 4000-year-old, 3000-year-old stories about an ancient people and a culture that apparently God was deeply involved in. He chose these people but doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with my life now as a believer. Yeah, I mean the thing is, the Old Testament as we know it, and we know it that way as Christian people, but if you were like a practicing jew you would…it’s the Torah, it is the Scriptures. It is the law and the prophets and the writings. It’s the Bible. But the thing is, if we skip that portion of the Scriptures than the New Testament, like it’s really murky. Like divorced from a Jewish heritage and a Hebrew con…context these things don’t make sense as to why they are important. So, point number one is, Hebrews was written for Hebrews. But as Gentiles reading Hebrews what we are seeing is an attempt to connect the dots, to take the ancient and evolving Jewish heritage over thousands of years and connect Jesus to the story - why He is the fulfillment of a major part of that story. Point number two is to try to put ourselves in the position of a Hebrew who was devout, maybe not like Pharisee devout or Sadducees devout, or rabbinical, but a person who loves the Lord, followed the rituals of the culture and the law that is best as they could, and began to hear the story about Jesus. If we can under…if we can put ourselves in that position and understand that then we can see how the gospel was offensive and the challenges that it faced as it emerged. As we’ve read through the Old Testament, we’ve encountered sacrifices, lots and lots and lots of times. Sacrifices in the morning, sacrifices in the evening, sacrifices for fellowship, sacrifices for the atonement of sin, like lots of sacrifice, lots of spilling of blood, lots of an animal life exchanging…being exchanged for a human one. So, for thousands of years, this had been going on in the Hebrew culture. People would sacrifice animals to God as well as other things - drink offerings, grain offerings, like all of this stuff - continually sacrificing to God. And in this time, this tribal time in the world, and I think we could safely say this was a tribal time in the world since we’re talking about the 12 tribes of Israel. So, it was a tribal time. This sort of sacrifice, this was happening all over the known world among all of the people. Sacrifices were being sacrificed to idols, to god’s, to the local and national gods of the time. The way that it was set up in the Hebrew culture and the law was this continual reminder, this continual reminder that we…that…that God is there providing, and we must keep Him first, our first fruits. We must remember that everything has come from Him. This went on for millennia. Okay. So, like in the first century when Jesus was upon the earth this had been going on for thousands of years. It had been disrupted along the way by war and exile and all kinds of dispersion, had gone through all kinds of transformation, but the principal, the idea, the concept, the understanding was deeply rooted in the Mosaic law and therefore was deeply rooted into the culture. And that sacrificial system included things like a chief priest, like a tent, or a tabernacle or a temple. And the blood of bulls and goats were a part of the sacrificial system. And what the writer of Hebrews, actually what all of the people who were trying to share the good news to Hebrew people would’ve been saying is, “even though this has been going on for thousands of years, even though to remember the beginning of this is to remember the oral traditions passed down and the writings in the Torah to inform us of this, nobody was there at the beginning of this system. This is just been how it’s been for as long as we can remember, like for thousands of years.” What the good news of the gospel was saying is that, “the sacrificial system that has been going on for thousands of years has come to an end. The final sacrifice has been made. A new covenant has begun because of this final sacrifice and once and for all redemption from sin has been secured through Jesus Christ. The law, the Mosaic law has been fulfilled. It has been accomplished. It is finished”, as Jesus said moments before He died. If you put yourself in the position of a person who has been following a tradition and has followed God and tried to do it devoutly throughout their lives in transmitted to their…their children because it had been transmitted to them, then even though you may be able to open up the Scriptures and show prophetic utterances that this would one day happen you might have expected it to be with a little bit more fanfare and this would seem hard to swallow. On the one hand, what great news would it be that the Messiah did come. On the other hand what awful news would it be to know that you totally missed that when God was doing a new thing and you didn’t see it coming at all? And on the one hand, what incredible news it would be. Like, sin isn’t a category now. It’s not the thing we’re…we’re battling. We don’t have to keep sacrificing animals to wash ourselves clean. We don’t have to have a most…a chief priest or a high priest who can once a year ago before God on our behalf…like we are allowed to go to God directly. He’s inviting us to have a direct experience with Him. The veil that separated us has been born. We are welcome in an we can approach him boldly as if we were actually a child of the most-high God because that’s what the gospel says that we are. So, if you’re hearing this for the first time and it begins to ignite something in you and you’re a first century Hebrew then he got dissonance going on. You got a conflict going on. You’re being pulled forward to believe that God is doing something remarkable, earth changing, certainly religion changing. But then you have millennia of tradition behind you and you’ve never known it any other way. And what kind of disruption would it cause if you didn’t follow the Mosaic law anymore since that was the way of the culture. Like your people had been marginalized for millennia among all the empires that had conquered them because you are an exclusive people. And now all the sudden the goals have been accomplished. Atonement is taken care of. The veil is torn. There is no separation from God anymore. Everyone is welcome. Like, this is a big shift. But it was a hoped-for shift. So, this at least allows us to enter into the tension that existed as the gospel was being born, as it was beginning to flourish in the world, but it also gives us insight into our own hearts because now we have thousands of years of tradition passed down. And I was talking to a pastor friend of mine I guess it was like a month ago about God doing a new thing and what these new things look like and how their disruptive to the old things and they don’t always makes sense and they’re often not fully perceived until after the fact until later. And this allows us to kinda zoom in into our own lives. We…we keep holding onto the traditions of our faith expecting certain things to work certain ways and we’re locked in when God may be wanting to do something new in us. And if He is that’s gonna be uncomfortable and its gonna be disruptive because it’s going to interrupt the status quo and we don’t like that. We don’t like that at all about anything usually. We certainly don’t like spiritual disruption. And, so, let’s just examine ourselves today. And, as we continue through the book of Hebrews let’s just examine ourselves and our faith. What are we holding onto because that’s what we’ve always held onto, that’s tradition? Those are the rituals; these are the things that we do. It doesn’t mean any of those things are wrong or should be discarded. It begins to peel us back like an onion and so we can see in our faith, are we holding on to God and the movements of His Spirit within us and in this world or have we built the cage of tradition that we will never leave and so nothing new can ever happen?
Prayer:
Father…O…we invite You into that. It’s so difficult because we would be willing to be disruptive and move…move from one certainty to another certainty if we could be certain that we’re moving in the certainly right direction. And yet that requires no faith at all. Faith requires us to reach beyond…beyond what we feel like we’re in control of and beyond what we feel like we have a grasp of. Faith is always beyond that. And, so, every time that we grow in faith, we’ve grown into it through these kinds of disruptions until we become aware of Your presence and what You’re doing and then it’s faith that pulls us forward. So, what are You doing in us or what would You like to be doing in us that we are preventing because we don’t want the status quo to be interrupted? Holy Spirit, this is kind of a testy thing. These are the kinds of things we just really don’t want to think about a lot of the time. And yet we’re being invited. We’re putting ourselves in the position of the people who first heard the good news and we’re seeing that they were supremely disrupted in order to take the leap of faith. And, so, why would it be any different in our lives? How else is it that we grow? Holy Spirit come. Lead us into all truth. This is a promise that we are holding onto. Lead us into all truth we pray. In the name of Jesus, 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 and Praise:
Good morning family, hey it’s Drew from the Bay Area. I’m calling in today and I want to thank you for your prayers. Young Drew is doing much better and I have a grandson named Kayden but pray that I get to see him. Pray for me too. I’m really going through it. I want to thank Kitty…Kitty from Kentucky for…for your heartfelt message. And I want to say thank you for Faithful Hope who called in a message about Psalm 56. But I’m calling in for others and wanted to say a prayer for Mason who’s going through depression right now. Comfort Mason, lift him up Lord. Let him see the light of your love and let his mother be okay with what you’re going…with what Mason’s going through. Lord and we pray for Danny and Danny’s grandson Christopher. What a terrible thing that they are going through now but we know that your love and all things work together for good for those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Yes, Lord and we ask you to raise a Christopher that he may be a mighty warrior in your army. Yes, and we ask you to comfort Tony, Lord to cleanse his mind that give him hope. Let Christopher and Danny be an encouragement to Tony and Lord we pray for Dustin, whatever he may have to go through Lord that he would come to you and come to forgiveness. Lord what…what a terrible thing but we know your grace is greater and we thank you for Julie from Cali, a new listener and what she’s done for her…her in-laws and what she’s done for her mother and Lord we ask you to restore everything that she’s lost tenfold.
This is Cheryl from Ontario Looking Unto Jesus. I was so glad to hear from John today from South Sudan who just returned from Nigeria. I remember when he said he was leaving. I have been praying for him. So, it was good to hear of his safe return, especially in light of the turmoil in Nigeria which our sister from there has informed us often as to pray. Lord I pray for Nigeria. There are problems in so many places around the world and many places in Africa and we know that you are in control and will work out your purposes in the midst and in spite of these things. I pray for protection upon your people and that they would indeed tear down the idols and be yielding allegiance to you alone and that you would open the hearts and minds of many who don’t know you to turn to you. I pray for peace and stability for Nigeria and I pray that you would bless John and his family and the work that you have given him that the many seeds planted would sprout up to bring eternal benefits. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hi this is Audrey from Minnesota and I’m a first-time caller, but I am in my second year of listening to the Daily Audio Bible. So, today when Brian was reading out of Hebrews I looked up into the sky and I said God I am so confused about all this Melchizedek stuff and then in his expository afterwards he so clearly defined who Melchizedek was, who David was, and who Jesus is in that lineage. It just absolutely amazed me and once again made me so incredibly grateful for this format and for this family. I’ve thought about calling in so many times and I’ve had these imaginary ideas and thoughts of what I would say and maybe you guys have thought the same things too, but one thing that I’ve always wanted to say is that, I used to listen to this other podcast every morning, it was a news podcast. And one day it just didn’t work. And, so, I thought, “you know what? I used to read the Bible every day. I don’t know how I started listening to this news podcast every day.” But, somehow just this slippery slope. I stopped reading the Bible. So, I just happened along this podcast and it has completely changed my life. So, I’m back in the world again every single day and growing as a Christian. And it just goes to show the power of the word and what it does for…for you personally and for your whole life. So, I just want to say thank you to Brian and his team for all of the work that you do to just dig into the Bible and explain it to all of us so that we can learn and grow. It is just such a powerful tool and I’m so incredibly grateful.
Hey Daily Audio Bible family this is Preston from Sunnyvale California I just want to pray for…in response to John from South Sudan. He left a…a message today. You are back in South Sudan after a month in Nigeria. I just want to lift up the country of Nigeria to the Lord. Here we go. Dear Father, dear Lord Jesus we thank You for Your sovereignty. We thank You that it is You in Your goodness who is the ruler of this world. We thank You that You have put Your son as the king and ruler of our lives and the ruler of our hearts Father. We thank You for the ability to give our hearts to You, that You and Your goodness allow us to connect directly to You through Your son Jesus Christ. Father, we lift up the country of Nigeria that has fallen away from You that denies Your sovereignty. Father, we ask that Your Holy Spirit would occupy the hearts of the Nigerian people and lead them back to recognizing Your…Your sovereignty as king over our souls Father. We ask the destruction, as John mentioned, the destruction of the altars to other gods Father, that in their place would be put altars to You Father. Jesus…in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
This is Gloria here calling in from Kampala here in Uganda East Africa and I’d like to pray for Running Desperately to Jesus. Father thank You for Your love that never fails. I thank You that Your mercies and graces are new every morning and that she…our beloved sister __ towards those graces that are new every morning. I thank You that there always enough and even when they’re not enough You did not leave us but facilitate us with the Holy Spirit and I thank You Holy Spirit that You’re going to fill her today. You’re going to pour out Your Spirit on her Lord. She’s going to feel Your eminent power. Your praises, Your mighty, mighty praises. And that she’s going to feel love. She’s going to feel worthy. She’s going to feel like Your child. So, Jesus I ask You to make a way where there seems to be no way. Father, whoever is feeling lonely, whoever’s feeling desperate I surrender them to You. I surrender them to Your loving loving loving loving hands. And I thank You Jesus that You’re doing a new thing in their lives. That You’re instilling life into their lives. Worthiness, wholeness and it’s only You who gives us all these beauties. So, thank You Jesus that You’re doing it again. May Your children testify of Your goodness Lord. Give them the new life. Give them the breath to desire You, desire, that passion. Reignite it again Lord. I ask You to send revival right now Lord into their life into every DAB listener right now who’s going through any situation. Jesus You’ve done it before, and I believe that You can do it again. Sister, you’re not alone. I was also on…on medication for depression but I’m now doing better and it’s because of this family of DAB family. I ask you to lean into it and you will be blessed. You will no longer feel lonely because we have your back. Trust me when I say that. God bless you. Bye-bye.