Deuteronomy 13:1-15:23, Luke 8:40-9:6, Psalms 71:1-24, Proverbs 12:5-7
Today is the 30th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today on the eve of the last day of the quarter. Yeah…and that’s where we’re at. And I would rather be here with you than anybody else. I’d rather be around this Global Campfire together and God’s word than anywhere else. What a privilege that we can be here no matter where we are and allow the Scriptures to speak into our lives. And they are. We’ve taken the journey this first quarter. They are speaking. And, so, let’s dive in. And we’re reading from the Contemporary English Version this week. Deuteronomy chapters 13, 14, and 15 today. And again, Deuteronomy is Moses last words. This is the important things that he has to say. And, so, we’ll pick up with the story in Deuteronomy chapter 13.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we are kind of in the thick of Jesus ministry now moving alongside of Him in the gospel of Luke and again we’re in the third of the Gospels. We’ve already gone through Matthew and Mark and Luke is the third of the synoptic Gospels. So, they all share some of the same source material. So, these are stories that, in one form or another, a lot of them we’ve encountered before. But this is such a riveting story here. So…so Jesus is back from across the lake, right, where the pigs and all that stuff we were talking about, everybody’s waiting for Him and so he begins to minister and then a synagogue leader comes and his name is Jairus and we know this from what we just read but he’s a leader of the Hebrew people and he’s asking Jesus to come because his only daughter…and doesn’t that just pull…like his only child, she’s 12 and just so sick she’s on the verge of death and there’s not a lot of places to turn. Could Jesus come? Would He come? And He’s willing. And He does. He does head in that direction. And that’s where this very famous story of the woman with the issue of blood and that’s how I grew up learning…learning this story - the woman with the issue of blood. This is where the story takes place. So, it’s not like Jesus is teaching in the synagogue, the woman has…you know…she thinks if I could just get close enough to touch Him. There’s a totally different story happening, and the woman inserts herself…self into the story. Jesus is on His way to Jairus house, time is of the essence because the little 12-year-old girl was on the verge of death, this woman is following along in the crowd and its really, really beautiful because we’ve been reading about clean and unclean and we’ve been moving through Mosaic law, and we have moved through bodily discharges, right? We moved through all of that territory and when these things are occurring or have occurred then there is uncleanness and separation for a period of time of purification and all of this. We are dealing with a woman who has been unclean, every moment of her life for a dozen years. She has been ceremonially unclean. And if we remember the things that we were reading as were moving through and into the Mosaic law we…we have to recall that if you are unclean and you touch somebody then they become unclean too. So, we have a crowd here, we have a rabbi. I mean, we know who Jesus is, but we have this rabbi who is healing people and revealing the kingdom and people are following along and…and she’s in the crowd and she’s unclean. And to make a rabbi unclean, this this could get you beaten up. Like this…this could get you punished in pretty significant ways if there was an issue made of it. And we’ve been dealing with…we’ve been dealing with other rabbis and Pharisees, right, and the Scribes. We sort of have the lay of the land of their kind of attitude, especially their attitudes toward Jesus. So, this woman’s taken a pretty big risk. It’s kind of a measured risk because it’s like, you know, if I just brush Him who’s gonna know and what’s the worst that could happen? Like nothing. The worst that could happen is nothing happens. And, so, she reaches out in faith and she’s healed, and Jesus stops and He’s wondering touched Him. And this whole story is so beautiful because the woman, she’s trying to cower back. Like, she's…this could get her in trouble because she just runs forward and confesses, “yeah, I’m perpetually unclean and now you’re unclean because I touched you on purpose” and all of this. This could get her in trouble, but Jesus is like, “no…no…this isn’t…this isn’t just somebody rubbing up against me about or just the crowd. This is…somebody intentionally touched me, and I felt it and I am aware. The power left me.” And, so, the woman, she does confess and Jesus’ reaction to her is very different than the way that we see the other religious leaders of the time behaving because He’s like, “go in peace daughter. Your faith has made you well. Go in peace.” It's…it’s beautiful. Isn’t that what Jesus has done in all of our lives? Like were we not unclean and completely lost and did He not show mercy upon us? The problem in this story, though, is that that slowed things down. Jesus was on His way somewhere and time was of the essence and this slowed Him down. And in the midst of that the messages came to Jairus that, “your daughter’s dead, that she died. You…you don’t need to bother the rabbi. You don’t need to bother the master anymore.” Now put yourself in Jairus position in the story because you had come pleading and begging for mercy from Jesus and He agreed and He was on His way and there was hope, there was hope there for a second and then…and then this whole incident happened, and she died. So, what do you feel like if you’re Jairus? It would be like hope was snatched from you and it was so close, so close. And Jesus speaks to Jairus, because we can put ourselves there in that story too. It doesn’t have to be the child’s about to die. It’s that moment where we have hope against hope and it looks like…and we’re right…and it could possibly…and then it’s snatched away. And the bitterness and the disappointment in those moments. Jesus speaks to Jairus who’s a person in that moment. His words, “don’t worry. Have faith.” And He continues to tell Jairus, “your daughter…your daughters gonna get well.” And they go to Jairus house and everybody’s outside crying. And there are…there are ancient traditions here where…where mourning, it needed to be loud…like you couldn’t just like post on social media like, “yeah…we’ve had a death in our family” and then everybody can know it. The word would need to spend, and this is a synagogue leader. And, so, there would be people mourning to make noise, like professionally mourning, like to show the depth of sadness that has descended upon this household. And, so, there are people out there that are…that are mourning and actually grieving but there are also people there that are…that are making the noises of grieving, like that…that…that are letting the village, letting the people around know, “death is calling, this is a terrible day.” And, so, Jesus kind of enters into all of that throng and He’s only letting people…a few people in and He looks at the crowd and He tells them, “the child isn’t dead, she’s asleep.” And all of that noise of grief turns to noise of laughter. I quote from the gospel of Luke, “the people laughed at Him because they knew she was dead.” So, that kind of laughter is sarcastic laughter. Like when you think you know something and you’re laughing at somebody because they’re telling you different, that’s kind of a mockery. And that’s what we see going on here. And Jesus goes in and…and the girl wakes up and she’s given back to her parents. But again, here we are in the story. We’re the professional mourners. We’ve had our disadvantages in life. We’ve been knocked around. We think we know how life works now and we’ve had enough heartbreak that we have walls around certain areas of our hearts where nobody can get in so we can’t get hurt anymore, so a set of circumstances can’t arise anymore that will bowl us over. We've…we’ve learned some hard lessons through hard knocks, and we know what’s going on and…and we know that life has beaten certain aspects of who we were to death. And We…we know that there are places in us that we’re just trying to let them go, just let them lie, right? Just let them lie in their grave. To have even hoped in those directions was stupid in the first place. And then maybe the Holy Spirit comes along, and we hear the voice of Jesus, “it’s not dead. It’s just asleep.” What happens in that moment? Does hope arise or do we laugh? Are we like Sarah back in Genesis, which seems like forever ago now? Are we in the tent? And she’s hearing the voice of the Lord, “about this time next year you will have a son.” And she laughed. Like who are we in these stories? Because this reveals our hearts to ourselves. This makes us become self-aware, not self-absorbed, self-aware. We become aware of the things that are driving us and we just are continually reminded that it's…it’s the utter surrender, it’s the complete dependence upon God that gives us freedom. It’s not what we think we know or what we’ve experienced or our knowledge or our wisdom or our accomplishments or our achievements or what we think is in our control. It’s our complete dependence upon God that saves the day. And, so, may we see that in stories of Jesus ministry like we are now. But may we begin to connect those dots so that we can see that the story plays out the same in our own lives if we’re aware and looking for it.
Prayer:
Jesus we…we love You. Could we just start there and maybe just end there? We love You. Where else is there to go? What else matters if we’re not walking with You? But as we get to see Your personality, as we get to see Your character as You minister among the people that’s coming off the pages of the gospel of Luke, we fall even more in love with You. To be like You, this is…this is what we desire. And yet, so often we want to be remade and transformed and be Christlike, but we think that that’s just gonna make us have more power and make our life better but we’re looking at how You bring light into the darkness and how the darkness squirms. And we have to understand that that would be the same story. So, as we are being remade, we are also being strengthened in our faith, because to be remade into Your image is to bring light into the darkness and the darkness will squirm. And we need to know what that looks like and be discerning and aware. And, so, come Holy Spirit 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:
[singing starts] I love you Lord and I lift my voice to worship you. O my soul rejoice. Take joy my King in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear. I love you Lord and I lift my voice to worship you. O my soul rejoice. Take joy my King in what you hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ears. [singing stops]. Thank you, Jesus. Jesus be with us.
This is Kathy from Kentucky calling to ask for prayer for my neighbor Sharon who’s still grieving the loss of her daughter, my friend Sarah a retired missionary who had a stroke and pray for myself. God is revealing to me some deep issues if I overeat, and I ask for prayers so that I can stop overeating and lose weight. Thank you for praying for me over the years. I’m doing well and I had both my covid shots and I survived covid. And, so, I didn’t get it. So, thank you Jesus for that. Thank you. Kathy from Kentucky.
Hi this is Sandra in Denver calling for Tammy in the Adirondacks. Tammy, I heard your message today that you left on March 9th and I wanted to let you know even though I’m behind in my reading for the year that this could have been a special appointment for the Lord just to pray for you. And I know the tears are coming as you’re grieving so many changes with the ovarian cancer and a hysterectomy and caring for your husband and the kids not coming by as often, but I want to encourage you that the Lord is capturing your tears in His bottles and He loves you so much. And as the tears come, it’s alright, they will. They won’t always but in the meantime it’s alright. Just snuggle in, press into Him, let them flow and He will rejoice over you with singing as you heal. Give yourself lots of time dear one.
Hello Daily Audio Bible family this is His Dearly beloved in Minnesota. I have called in several times within the last couple of months, had a hysterectomy and then they found cancer. And…and so, I just had 50 tumors removed from my liver and as well as 6 inches of my small intestine and I’m recovering but the last few days, you know, I’m about ready to go home and then it seems like my white count is coming up a little bit. And…and now I have to make a decision about whether to go home or stay or what to do. So, I would just really appreciate prayer, that the doctors who will be in here any minute can help me make a decision. And I just so appreciate all of the prayers. The Daily Audio Bible has totally taken me through this hospitalization. I’ve been here, I think this is 8 days now, and…and I just really thank you. And I’m praying for each of you and how what a…what a gift this podcast is. So, take care, love you. Bye-bye.
Hi this is Donna from California and I just listened to today’s podcast for March 27th and there was a caller who called in, Mr. somebody concerning your cousin, your 15-year-old cousin who has fathered a baby on…on the way. And I just want to…I am praying for your family. I’m praying for this young couple and I’m praying for this baby. I wanted to offer my perspective on it from my experience if it…if it is at all helpful to you. On July 6th of 1976 when I was 15 years old, I was taken to Planned Parenthood and I had an abortion. And I would now have a child who is over 40. There’s many things that I regret in my life but nothing…if I had to choose one thing that if I could go back and undo or redo it would be that. I pray for the life of this child. I…if you want to share this with the family, I pray that if they know Jesus that to remember that Jesus’ birth was certainly kind of a messy ordeal for the family at the time too. There is no such thing as an unwanted child. There might be an unplanned pregnancy, but every baby can be wanted and loved and there are many of us out there including myself who would take a baby and love that baby. I…I pray for…for you. Thank you for calling in. Sending my love.