Exodus 19:16-21:21, Matthew 23:13-39, Psalms 28:1-9, Proverbs 7:1-5
Today is the 4th day of the month of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is great to be here with you today as we…as we take the next step forward and reach forward for what comes next. And we’ve been spending our time working through the book of Exodus in the Old Testament, which is what we’ll continue to do. We’re reading from the Voice Translation this week. Exodus chapter 19 verse 16 through 21 verse 21. And just by way of reminder the children of Israel have an appointment with the Almighty God who is coming to speak to them at the mountain of God. Exodus chapter 19.
Commentary:
Okay. So, God has come down upon Mount Sinai in the…in the desert in the wilderness. The people are all around the mountain. They’re not allowed to go upon it. And God has come to speak directly with the people. The people don’t want God to speak directly to them. They’re too afraid and so they’re essentially telling Moses. “you speak on behalf of God and we will listen to you and do whatever you say.” And, so, in so many ways the people are affirming Moses as a prophet. That is what a prophet does, speak on behalf of God to the people, which shows us the importance of the prophet being genuine. We will learn about false prophets in the Scriptures. We will also see that there are consequences in this new society that God is being built for people who claim to speak in the name of the Lord but aren’t at all. But let’s notice what’s beginning to happen here. People are gathered around the mountain of God. God begins to speak to them. He begins to tell them what they are going to look like as a people. And, so, we encounter famously the 10 Commandments as well as other instructions including like instructions about servants and slaves. And, so, we can scratch our head and read the 21st-century into the ancient Scriptures and go, “well…what’s that doing in the Bible”, not understanding that we have to get ourselves the context of what’s happening here, what’s actually going on and why it matters. The children of Israel have only ever been slaves. So, 400 years have gone by and no one’s going to be 400 or more years old at this point, right? So, every single person that came out of Egypt was born a slave and left Egypt as a slave. All they ever knew was how to be a slave. All they ever knew of the culture was whatever had been inherited - part of Egyptian, part Hebrew, mostly all slave. They don't…they don’t know how to go into a promised land and establish it and set up the leadership and rule under God and be a nation of priests to the world. What they do know how to be is a slave. And, so, for God to give provisions about slaves and essentially say they are hired laborers for a period of time and this is how it works. This is a gigantic can take step forward in the world at this time. The idea that there are term limits, the idea that there are any rights whatsoever of the slave, even a free person who has been captured in battle and made a slave. So, we have made some pretty significant progress in the world over the last several thousand years. But we are also watching God establish revolutionary ideas and concepts about culture because that is fundamentally what we are in the wilderness for. That is fundamentally what’s happening here. The children of Israel know how to be slaves. They don’t know how to be anything else. They don’t know how to be the chosen people of God. They don’t know how to be a nation of priests. They don’t know anything but what they have always known. And, so, God has brought them into the wilderness where they have no way out. They have got to depend upon Him for their survival. And that is a fundamental principle that is a baseline truth for this new thing that God is doing among the Hebrew people. And, so, what we are beginning to experience is the giving of the law, the law of God, the law that would govern this people that would inform them into a cohesive people moving in a specific direction for specific purposes. They were the chosen people, and they were chosen to bless the world. So, we have in some ways begun to shift our narrative. Like this is a very dramatic story with the plagues and everything in the Exodus from Egypt and the Red Sea but we’ve begun to shift the narrative now to where the people are hearing what God wants to shape, like how He is going to knit these people together as the family of God and what He expects. And what we’re going to notice is that everything, everything about this law…and some of these things we’re gonna scratch our head and say go, “that is so antiquated I can’t even imagine doing that.” That was thousands of years ago but the essence of what God is knitting together is that everything that they do reminds them of who they are and who God is and where they’re going. It’s being baked into the new culture that is emerging. And, so, yeah, we’ll go into all kinds of stature…we’re going to read the book of the law and it will read like a law book. But before we even get there understanding this is where it’s going. What God is doing is bringing His people into the wilderness where they have to listen, and they have to learn to trust or they will not survive. And then God is beginning to instruct them. What’s happening is the world is moving forward. The way people deal with each other is being reimagined. Okay…so…so that’s that…
…and then we turn the page into Matthew, and we see Jesus is just very ticked off, “woe to you, You brood of vipers, you whitewashed tombs.” Like He’s just going off. And who is He going off on? The religious leaders who are responsible for stewarding the law. What had happened is they lost the plot along the way and the law was no longer like this way of living, this way of being, this is way of staying set apart and pure and so everything that you did reminded you you were in covenant with God. Instead, all that was lost in favor of ritual, in favor of following the letter of the law. And that became nothing more than controlling the people. And, so for Jesus to make commentary today like He did so directs, He’s basically saying, “Are you so stupid”, right? “Are you so blind? Are you so ignorant? Can’t you see you’ve lost the plot here?” Of course, power obscures all kinds of things that we know are right and all kinds of things that we know are wrong and they have power and it’s a very tenuous power because the Roman Empire is in charge, but they are allowing these Hebrew people to kind of maintain their own subculture, a separatist culture. And, so, these religious leaders are just trying to keep everything moving forward and stay in power and stay in control and Jesus sees right through it. Jesus sees right through everything. Jesus sees the truth in all things. That is having eyes to see and ears to hear. And, so, in some ways, in today’s reading, we get a glimpse of the time when the law when instructions are just being first given and then we get to zoom forward a couple of millennia into the first century in the time of Jesus and see what became of things and what God in the flesh, what Jesus has to say about what they’re doing and He doesn’t like it.
Prayer:
Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your word and we thank You for this…this kind of perspective where we can look sort of like before and after and we don’t have all of the story in between but that’s the story of the Bible, that’s what we’re doing every day step-by-step day by day and all of these things will be filled. But we get this glimpse that it’s not about what You look like, it’s not what You can present, it’s not in the way that You can perform in front of people, how pious and holy You are. It’s what’s inside of us that’s true. And we watch You Jesus looking at the truth in everything that You do. And, so, we believe that You are looking at us and You can see the truth. We can’t hide it from You. We can’t do a dance and fool You. We can’t change the tone of voice that we’re using or put-on makeup or wear a hat or hide in the other way. You see the truth about us. That can be unnerving, or it can be freeing. Finally, finally, in all of the earth there is one who would look upon us and see us as we truly are and still love us enough to die for us. We thank You for that. We want this to compel us and shift us that we might press in and move away from all that is false so that we can find freedom in the truths because the truth sets us free. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
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Community Prayer and Praise:
Good afternoon Daily Audio Bible it’s January the 30th and this is Chris Ann calling back in. And I’m just asking for some continued prayer for…for me for decisions that I need to make in my life. As you may have remembered several times that I’ve called in, I’m separated from my husband, separated for several years and it’s just been a very difficult journey. And while I feel like I’m supposed to keep praying through this it’s just getting harder and harder. It…I miss my family, I miss my husband, I miss…even though that the situation was that he did what he did and wasn’t faithful that I still miss him, and I still care for him very deeply. And I miss my son and just so much that’s been going on from last year even into this year that the stress on me has caused me not to feel well. And I have an older dog that I know that while he’s in pretty decent health I know that he's…he’s got a little heart murmur that’s going on and just ask for his body just to be healed and…because he is my comfort that I have right now at home and it’s just hard. It’s hard. I don’t even know how to explain it, but at times it’s very lonely and it’s hard and I just need some prayer just to get me through this. And thank you all so much. God bless.
Hi Daily Audio Bible this is Renzo from Maryland. I just want to say thank you guys for everything you’re doing. It’s a blessing. I just caught up. I was behind like 14 days. So, I just thank God that He’s just really been blessing me to just catch up and get closer and closer to Him. And I just want to pray for anybody that’s just going through anything hard times, going through anything like depression because I heard that only the line, depression and stuff like that. Just please…just Father God, I just thank You for everything that You do for us God and just please just help people who are struggling with depression God. Just please help them to get closer and closer to You God and the Holy Spirit to guide them and please help them just keep listening to the Bible because the Bible is so relational, and it just gives us a perfect guideline in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Praying for you guys God bless you.
This is Mike in Tampa I’ve been a long-time listener. I haven’t called in a very long time probably several…about four years now but I was especially moved to call in when Desiree got on here and was telling us about her finding out that her mother was a drug addict and how it just left her…left her with a lot of hurt. And Desiree I just want to pray for you sweet sister right now. And thank you for calling in. It was such a blessing to hear from you sweetie. Lord Jesus we…we come to you in prayer for our…or dear sister Desiree. And Lord I just ask You Lord to bring healing to her heart. Help her to know how much You love her oh Lord. Help her to…to experience or great love and healing and acceptance and…and…and how she’s very dear and precious to You a Lord. And thank You Lord that…that she called in so we could pray. And just please please please Lord bring healing to this family, bring healing to help her mom to find the healing that she needs as well and the help that she needs and help her to…to be reunited with her daughter and to not blame her in any way for what she’s done and…and thank You Lord in Jesus’ name. Amen. Desiree have a…have a good day sweetie and…and just know that a lot of…an awful lot of us are praying for you. Probably as many as thousands are praying for you right now. A lot of ‘em won’t call in but they’re praying for you sweetie. OK. Bye bye.
Hello DAB family this has been an amazing amazing journey these last couple months. My devotional life last year I…I decided to get more focused on…in the word and this last year has been even though with Covid and everything has been a struggle. I’ve grown a lot. And finding this app through a YouTuber I’ve been really excited to finally have a daily plan that I’ve been listening to. So, that has been awesome. The reason why I’m on here now is…and by the way…my name is Andrew. I am from Regina Saskatchewan Canada but the reason I’m phoning is because of this lady that…that sent a message about being hurt by the Christian community and…and her being engaged and her thinking that there’s gotta be something bad that’s gonna happen and she asked for prayer for peace. So, I just want to pray right now for her. Dear heavenly Father I just thank You so much for Your love and who You are and for the gifts that You give us. And God sometimes in our human nature we under…we don’t understand sometimes why You give us good gifts. God, I understand that it…it may not feel real. And I just pray that this lady who didn’t give her name but You know who she is God, that You would just give her that peace, give her that confidence that You are a Father who wants to give us good gifts. And I pray that for the continual healing in her heart for…for being in involved in the Christian community. And I pray that that that would just be a blessing to her and give her peace in those areas and healing and enjoy this engagement that she’s that she has. So, I pray You just bless her and give her strength. I pray all these things in Jesus’ name.
Hi good morning this is John Allen from Orlando FL. This is a first-time caller. I want to thank all of you Daily Bible Audio family for all your prayer requests that you have requested. I want to stand in the middle and say a prayer for all of you. Father God I thank You for all my brothers and sisters who have called in seeking You. Lord You’ve heard their petitions. We come before Your throne of grace Lord praising You, glorifying You. Glory be to Your name Lord. Glory be to You in the highest. Father You see everything, and You know everything. I come before You believing in faith that You will walk on water for everyone who called out to You requesting a prayer. I thank You Jesus for this platform that we can all reach out to one another encouraging one another. I thank You for Brian and his family for creating this this daily prayers and daily readings. Thank You, Jesus for Your grace that never ends. Father God cover every single brother and sister who has called in with Your blood protection Lord from this COVID-19. Father comfort the people that are not able to see that are going through all difficulties on their own Father God. Thank You, Jesus. Come through for us Father God. We seek You we look for You Lord. We put our eyes on You. Glory be to Your name Lord the name that is above all names. Father thank You for what You are doing in this group. Thank You for Your grace that never ends Lord. Thank You for the small victories that You’ve given us this month Father God. Thank You, Jesus for who You are Lord. Thank You, Lord my God. We honor You we glorify You we put our eyes on You. Thank You Lord. Thank You in Jesus mighty powerful name I pray the covering of Jesus blood over every single brother and sister who called in in Jesus’ name. Amen. Blessings.
Hello everybody this is God’s grace for Japan and I just heard…I’m a little behind…and I just heard the January 29th broadcast with a new sister joining us at the end of the broadcast who just got engaged. And first of all, congratulations. I’ve been married since 2014 and the reason I’m bringing that up is because I wanted you to know that I too came into my engagement from a season of almost a decade of heartbreak and pain in which I…I…I think I just didn’t really believe that the good thing could happen. And, so, that plus I also related very much to what you’re talking about the inability to connect with a Christian community which I also had experienced some spiritual abuse within Christian communities, and I mean I think more than one of us can attest to that we…our other brothers and sisters do not always love us or care for us or behave towards us as I think that our Messiah would prefer but that aside I hope you find healing here. And also, I want to encourage you as you enter this journey…and yes…I know it’s terrifying, it’s terrifying to start something good or for something good to come into your life when everything around you is saying, “no but good things don’t happen to me.” And I…I had way too many days, years, months of…of wrestling with that almost and anxiety in the early days of my marriage. And I still have all sorts of anxiety about “when’s the other shoe gonna drop? When is the terrible thing gonna happen?” And I want to courage you, rest in the good thing that God gives you too. He gives us blessings. Yes, this life id full of trouble and I know nothing lasts forever on this side of heaven but enjoy the blessings He gives you. I will be praying for you sister. And if you have a need just call us up. Love you. Bye.