Exodus 17:8-19:15, Matthew 22:34-23:12, Psalms 27:7-14, Proverbs 6:27-35
Today is the 3rd day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is an honor and privilege and joy to be here with you today as we put one of our feet out in front of us and shift our balance and lean forward into it and take the next step forward, which is what we do every day. 365 step journey. Seems like a little one, but it takes us through the whole Bible, takes us through the whole year. And, yeah, like I was saying in the last couple of days, now that we’re moving into this second month of the year, we…we already can look back. It’s not like the Bible didn’t start speaking to us right out of the gates. It’s been speaking all along. And, so, let’s dive in and that take the next step. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 through 19 verse 15.
Commentary:
Okay. Let’s talk about chosen people for a second, right? Because probably…unless this is like…you’re just…very very new to anything about the Bible and just hearing these stories or some of this terminology for the first time…and I know there’s a ton of you…and…and no problem…it’s all gonna start clicking into place as we keep following the story. But those of us who have been around this faith for a while, like understanding that the Israelites are God’s chosen people. That’s just kind of part of the story. And we can think that He chose them because He wanted them more than anybody else and somehow, they are better or more exalted or are more favorable somehow than anybody else. And, so, they’re like almost a different level of human being and everybody else is below that. And that terminology, that kind of concept, it then bleeds over into the Christian faith. And those of us who have accepted Christ, then we know that we have been chosen and have been adopted in the family of God. And, so, we feel that same kind of “I’m special-ness.” And that’s fine, that’s good, but it’s not all there is to it. I mean, if the Scriptures tell us God is not a respecter of persons, if the Scriptures tell us like nobody’s better than anybody else, and that’s very explicit in the writings of the apostle Paul, then how do we get to this favored chosen people and what does this mean? God very clearly speaks to that today as the children of Israel are at the mountain of God. So, there out in the wilderness at what has traditionally been believed to be Mount Sinai. And God and Moses have been talking and God is…has instructed Moses to invite the people to purify themselves, because He's…God is going to meet with them directly, personally, like not through a prophet or anything. Like we’re seeing God’s intention was to communicate directly with His people. As the story unfolds, we’ll see that that’s not how things exactly work out for various reasons and we’ll discuss them as we go, but at this point that is the invitation, that the people purify themselves and not come upon…on the mountain, the mountain of God until they are given permission. And God speaks. And I read this out of the Scriptures, and this is the voice of God. “You are eyewitnesses of all that I did to the Egyptians. You saw how I snatched you from the bonds of slavery and carried you on Eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now, if you will hear my voice, obey what I say, and keep my covenant, then you out of all the nations of the world will be my treasured people. After all, the earth belongs to me. You will be my kingdom of priests, a nation holy and set apart.” There it is. There is a reason these people are being set apart. It is so that they can be His kingdom of priests to the world so that all nations can be blessed through them, which is what God told Abraham. They’re not being chosen because they are better. They are being chosen for a purpose, a purpose that affects the world until this day. So, my brothers and sisters as believers in Jesus Christ we share in that. We aren’t better. We are chosen for a purpose. We are set apart to be a kingdom of priests, to be a city on a hill, to be the light of the world.
So, if we zoom out of the wilderness and zoom forward in the story by millennia and come into the time of Jesus and just look at how things are than we hear God in flesh, Jesus speak of these priests and what He says…well…I’m gonna quote Him. “The Pharisees and the scribes occupy the seat of Moses. So, you should do the things they tell you to do but don’t do the things they do. They heap burdens upon their neighbors backs and they prove unwilling to do anything to help shoulder the load. They’re interested above all in presentation,” right? In how things look. “They wrap their heads and arms in the accoutrements of prayer, they cloak themselves with flowing tasseled prayer garments, they covet the seats of honor at fine banquets in the synagogue, and they love it when people recognize them in public and call them teacher and beam at them.” That is a very different thing than knowing that you have been set aside, set apart to God to be a kingdom of priests to the world. So, indeed we are chosen, indeed we are special. It has nothing to do with us. And when we start subtly thinking that it does, we have planted seeds that are going to grow up and they’re going to be called arrogance and pride. And that I guess…maybe the easiest most clear way to say it is, that won’t work. Look around you. Look at the stories in the Bible and see it doesn’t work and just look at the world we live in, it doesn’t work.
Prayer:
Father, indeed, we feel chosen. Indeed, we know Your love for us, but indeed we know that we didn’t do anything. There’s nothing we could do that would ever force Your hand. You would never…there’s nothing we can do that would make You go, “like, okay You have achieved righteousness on Your own. I have no choice but to see You that way.” We are what we are because of You. We are nothing without You. Our next breath is a gift. We are utterly dependent upon You even when we don’t acknowledge it, even when we’re not paying attention. So, we’re taking this moment to be grateful and to humble ourselves. That was Your words today Jesus, “for whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Come Holy Spirit and help this to be the way we live, the default, the normal, we ask in the name of Jesus. Amen.
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And that’s it for today. I’m on Brian I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.