Exodus 28:1-43, Matthew 25:31-26:13, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 8:12-13
Today is the 8th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we get into this workweek and reach out for the next step, move further into the Scriptures and into the stories that we are immersing ourselves. In the book of Exodus, we are…well…we’re listening to God begin to weave together the culture of these recently freed slaves are gonna look like. So, what God wants His people to present and model for the world, this is what we’re beginning to hear. And if we understand that then, you know, some of the stuff is tedious like, how long, how far should the polls be spread out on this tent and, you know, but what we need to understand is that this tent is something that God is saying, “I want to build this and this is gonna be in the center of the camp and this is going to represent the fact that I am dwelling among you in the middle of it all.” And, so, for God to have some specific specifications about what this is to look like not only has practical value because it needs to be movable, it needs to be portable because they’re moving around, but also because it needs to fulfill a specific purpose among the people. This is the place where God is among them. It’s something physical that they can see. It’s something that makes them aware that in the middle of everything there is God. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Exodus chapter 28.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the book of Matthew for the last couple of days we’ve been reading Jesus discussion about the end times. And this whole thing began by Jesus and His disciples being in Jerusalem, and them admiring the construction of the temple. And the temple, in Jesus time, this is the second Temple, so this is the Herodian temple, and it would’ve only been completed for about 40 years. So, this is pretty new, and Herod is one of the greatest developers in world history. As crazy of a person as he was, paranoid as he was, he was an unbelievable developer, a builder. So many of the Herodian constructions are still in existence today in ancient Israel. So, this would’ve been the temple that they would have been…would’ve been observing and they’re just admiring it and Jesus is like, “the whole all things coming down”, which is what began this discussion because later on they’re like, “tell us when this is all going to happen.” What Jesus tells us is that things get worse before they get better when we reach the times of the end, and that essentially the things that are observable like wars or famines or rumors of wars, these kinds of things, these are like contractions that a mother has when she is in labor preparing to give birth, but the contractions aren’t the birth. The birth is the birth. And I’m kinda using this line of reasoning, the birth is that all things will be made new again. And, so, this in affect is called an apocalyptic world view and Jesus was known from the outside as like an apocalyptic prophet because He said the things that He’s saying. He’s saying things about the times of the end. A lot of times…we already talked about this…we’re trying to date things, trying to find the right month just plan it all out, which has always up until this very day been 100% incorrect every time a guess has been made. And Jesus during this discourse claims that He doesn’t even know, that the only one who knows is the Father. And, so, His…His discourse, this conversation that’s been going on isn’t really to instill terror it’s just simply to say this is…this is how you will know things are moving in a certain direction when you see these kinds of things happening. Well, these things…these kinds of things have been happening for a long time. So, this is where we find ourselves, contractions or labor pains or the pains of birth depending on which translation you’re reading in, that this is what we’re seeing but this is not the end. And even Jesus…that like nobody…nobody knows that day but the father, which then leaves a little bit of unrest, right? Because how could you prepare for what you don’t know? It’s just like an ominous cloud of dread that hangs over everything. And, so, Jesus then goes into a couple of stories saying this is what the posture should be. So, He does a story of the virgins and the bridegroom, the banquet, the wedding banquet and half of these girls, they came prepared with extra oil in their lamps because they didn’t know exactly when he’s gonna show up. The other ones just came to the party excited about it but were not prepared for any kind of lengthy waiting. And, so, their oil ran out. They all fell asleep their oil ran out but when the bridegroom came the wise…the wise maidens woke up they had oil. The other three are like, “give us some of your oil. We don’t have enough.” And they have to go buy more oil and in the process, they miss the bridegroom. So, in the context of what Jesus is saying about being aware of the end and just being like just being able to see the signs of the times, what would be the moral of the story? The moral of the story then would be the ones who were prepared, right, the ones who didn’t know when the bridegroom was going to show up, but they were prepared are the ones who got to see him. So, in other words, like bringing this out of a story we would say we don’t know the day the end of things. We have some signs that are observable, but we don’t know exactly when. Only the Father knows that. We are supposed to be ready any time as if it’s in the next five minutes. Like we’re always supposed to be vigilantly ready and aware. And then Jesus tells another story about a master who gave five talents to one person, one servant, two talents to another servant, one…two to a third servant and then went away. Two of them doubled what they were given. The one with five had ten by the time the master came back. The one with two had four by the time the master came back. And the person who was given one talent buried it in the ground and did nothing with it. When the master did return it was, “well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter into rest. Enter into my joy” for the…for the two that had taken the risk and actually stewarded what they were given by the master and doubled what they were given by the master. That worked out well for them. The one who had the talent and buried the talent, it did not work out as well for him. So, what do we pull out of that in light of being aware and prepared for the end? We would have to say that the ones who recognized what they had been given and did everything that they could to steward what they had been given so that the kingdom of the master would have an increase, those who were at work and were not afraid, those were at work and prospering, they got the “good, well done.” The one who just took what they had and…and hid it so that they wouldn’t lose it and just went on with their lives, not paying attention that didn’t work out so well. So, Jesus has given us…well …first of all, an apocalyptic worldview which we all share on some level. That is the…just the general awareness, the general sense that we were born into an ongoing story, the story of humanity and this story continues to go on generation after generation and it’s all ultimately headed somewhere. It’s all…like we’re in a story that is going somewhere. From apocalyptic perspective we’re expecting that things will get worse before they get better, but we have the perspective that these are contractions that are unto something, the birth of all things being made new. So, we have that kind of baked into us, It’s just back there. But it has a profound effect on the way that we live, far more than we realize, unless we’re paying attention. This is what Jesus is speaking to, and so this is why He was known to some the way that He was, an apocalyptic prophet. So, we get into today’s reading and then Jesus is talking about when the Son of Man comes and how He’ll will be like a shepherd and He will separate the sheep from the goats. And the separation, the distinction between the sheep and the goats was how they had cared for the vulnerable, how they had cared for the least of these, how they had cared for those who were marginalized. That should prick us pretty profoundly and invite examination of our own lives. We should also be able to read into this that it’s a great encouragement for the hearers of Jesus because Jesus primary hearer, they were marginalized, they were suppressed, they had…they were subjugated. They didn’t really have a voice or representation in the culture that they were in. And, so, they were simmering and stewing, So, these kinds of words about the least of these being important to God would have been very encouraging to them. But ultimately what Jesus said is that when you care for the vulnerable you are caring for Jesus. When you don’t care then you are not caring for Jesus. And it’s fascinating what happens as He ends this discussion, this discussion at least for us that’s taken several days to move through. He finishes this discussion and I’m quoting from the book of Matthew here. “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest who was named Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill him.” That is their response to Jesus teaching about where this is all going and the posture of heart that we must have to be able to observe it, a posture of vigilance and awareness and preparedness, a posture of understanding that we are steward…like what we have, the talent in the story of Jesus, what we have been given we are to use to advance the kingdom of God and be participating and collaborating in it. So, this general sense that we need to be awake and aware or to put it more clearly in Jesus vernacular, that we have eyes to see and ears to hear, and that we are seeing and hearing the vulnerable. The religious leader’s response to this is to plot the assassination of this guy, Jesus, who is stirring up the hearts of the people. Now, obviously we are reading the story of the life and ministry of Jesus. So, it’s clear who is against Jesus and it happens to be the religious elite. And we can very easily make judgments about them, but we must examine our own hearts. Are we prepared? Are we awake? Are we alert? Are we understanding that what we have has been given to…given to us to steward? Are we focused on the vulnerable or is it more our custom to simply rehash the political talking points that are going around at any given time? We’re actually invited by Jesus to step all the way away from all that and focus on people and be aware of people, be aware that our impact actually matters, that this is the way of God’s kingdom not paid people who interpret the news and tell us what to think. The Holy Spirit is here to lead us into all truth no matter what gets said to polarize us from each other so that we can be manipulated. This is the stuff that Jesus was against. He was against of the things of the world because the things of the world had grown false. Everything had a veneer of falseness about it. That’s the way of the world now. That’s the way of people now. We’re all hiding things and Jesus is like you…you have permission to be true and…and when more and more people are then the kingdom becomes more and more evident. It becomes a city on a hill. It becomes a light in the dark. It becomes the salt that preserves things. These are the kinds of examples that Jesus uses. And, so, we’re never going to be able to just look at Jesus and go, “that was a pretty story.” There’s nothing about Him that’s not gonna challenge something in us because what He’s after, what He was after in His earthly ministry and what He is after now is that we be free through the truth and not through the next conspiracy theory that comes down the pipe. And, so, maybe we should be listening to Him. And, I mean, maybe this is a good time to review, go back and read the entire discourse Jesus is laying out in the book of Matthew on our own because the point here isn’t that we finally learn what the Bible says. Just…that…I mean that’s the tip of the iceberg. The point is that we hear what it says, compare it to our lives, andt hen understand that there are things that must change if we’re going to come into alignment with wisdom and that we can’t do this on our own. It requires surrender to the will of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And, so, yeah, this isn’t going to go away. That’s the thing. The quicker that we…if we really want this, we want to live this faith, if we want to be in this faith, if we want it to actually work instead of it just being a set of principles that are supposed to work but really don’t. If we actually want to live into this then we’re going to have to be willing to live into this, to take up our cross and follow.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit come. We ask every day. Some days, we are so full of hope and encouragement and some days we are pricked. And…and we thank…we thank You for that. We thank You for the disruption. We thank You that the Bible isn’t pandering to us. It’s looking at us in the eyes and showing us how things are. It’s leading us away from falseness and into the truth and we need, but sometimes it’s disruptive and we need to get used to disruption because it’s the thing, it’s the catalyst that shakes us that makes us get off the couch, it’s the thing that makes us move. So, come Holy Spirit into all of this 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:
Hello good whatever it is wherever you are whenever you’re listening to this. This is just another Joe calling in on Wednesday February 3rd 3:13 my time. Against my logical self I’m throwing my log in on the campfire. I’ve been listening for many years, but I never really felt like I needed to call in and speak. I just want you to know that I’m standing behind you and agreeing with whatever you ask for in prayer. I love you guys. Can’t wait to hear…
Hi my name’s Amie calling from Canada and I was initially going to respond with a prayer request but instead after listening these last few weeks and indeed the last few months and just growing into the Daily Audio Bible, loving it to pieces I am so grateful for this ministry. Thank you so much for what it has given me and so many around the world obviously. But I really wanted to just reach out to a couple of people individuals who called in and requested prayer. One, the young girl with the so-called whatever brain problem that she described. Honey, you are so loved by Jesus. And when you asked for prayer, I envisioned His hands on your head and may His hands be your helmet all day long. There will be healing, and I pray for you every day. I also pray for them mum who called him with a daughter she has to be strong for. You were just diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a daughter of a woman who has just survived breast cancer and mama wherever you are I am praying for you. Remember, God does not give you what you cannot take He does not give you more than you can take and…and you will be strong. You are strong in the Lord. Rest in Him on His rod and His staff. You may walk through the Valley of the shadow, but it is just a shadow. He loves you and I am praying for you.
Well, I just wanna say if anybody is hearing this that God is good and personally just coming to Him within I would say about a month been kinda crazy but, you know, coming from a life that’s been, you know, so against God. When I was a child and going to church and stuff not really knowing what it meant, you know, coming to God, just, you know, view changing it’s encouraging. Like I actually have, you know, a purpose in life. And it’s awesome. And, of course, there’s bad days and there’s good days like He says. God doesn’t change for a season. I’m really trying not to. I really want to, you know, get the same truth out to everybody else. And, yeah, I hope that He comes back some because I feel like I miss Him. I miss my __ here but I love all you guys. And everybody who’s hearing this know God loves you. Literally, all you have to do is chase Him with your full heart, ask Him, talk to Him like He’s a real person, He is a real person, He made us into persons but have a conversation like you have a conversation with a real human being. That’s all He really wants. And, yeah, He’ll show Himself to you. He’s got you like he did me. I’m just trying to, you know, chase after Him. And I know I will find Him. Amen. Amen. Amen.
My name is Tyler I’ve been trying to pray for a less critical spirit, and I can’t pray for myself anymore. So, I need prayer from other people around me. I appreciate all of your prayers that I’ve heard and listened to. Jesus loves all of you. Thank you for the Daily Audio Bible app.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. I’ve been reminding myself this…of this scripture quite often over recent days because everything seems a bit manic, everything seems a bit busy, you know it’s all uncertain as…as it has been for the past year really. And I’m tired and that doesn’t help matters either, you know. I’m eating properly, I’m getting sleep and yet I’m still tired. And yeah, it doesn’t help. And…and I make plans and then things happen that could potentially derail those plans and nothings certain. And, so, at this time it's…you know I’m choosing to cling to Christ, I’m choosing to trust and the Lord that even though I’ve made plans that His will will be done. And I’m praying for wisdom around that as well. Yeah, and yet…I'm…I'm…I’m choosing to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is Michaela from Gloucester. I hope you have a blessed day wherever you are. Thank you for your prayers. Bye.
Hello DAB family we just thank God for your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing podcast. I just have a strong urge to encourage those who were adopted fostered moved from family home to family home or those who generally feel abandoned by their own parents, it could be either physical or emotionally they are not there, and they feel unloved. Just remember that God wipes away your tears and He hears your cry. He is mending your hearts. Abba Father is our true Father. He gives us the love that no earthly parent can give us and comfort you when you feel alone and emotionally drained. We have to also remember that in Galatians 4, 6 and 7, it says because we are His children God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts prompting us to call out Abba Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child and since you are His child God has made you His heir. Amen. Please be encouraged. God bless you all. Praying for you all. And this is Sarah from London.