Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20, Luke 11:37-12:7, Psalms 78:1-31, Proverbs 12:19-20
Today is April 6th welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it’s great to be here with you today as we continue moving into this month. And there’s a lot going on in the first part of this month, right? We move into the fourth month and then we had Good Friday and Easter. And, so, we’re just kinda moving just a couple of days from there. So, just getting settled into the month of April, a month where the seasons change. And here in the northern hemisphere where I live in the United States in the rolling hills of Tennessee, new life begins to spring forth for sure, in earnest. And, so, that’s where we find ourselves, I guess in the year. In the Bible we find ourselves in the book of Deuteronomy, which is the last book of the Torah or the Pentateuch and we are nearing the last part of that book. We will finish that book this…well…at the end of this week. So, let’s dive in and listen to what Moses continues to say, how he continues to present who the people are, where they’ve come from, who God is and where they’re going lest they ever forget so that Moses departs history knowing that…that on his watch, his conscience is clear. Today, Deuteronomy chapters 29 and 30.
Commentary:
Okay. We need to talk about some things from the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy and from the gospel of Luke as well because they…they both…like right in our face today offering us the chance to examine ourselves. So…so, in the book of Deuteronomy Moses is…is kind of reaching the conclusion of the things that he has to say. And we know this. We’ve said it a bunch of times this is the last things that he does have to say. And, so, as he’s sort of reaching a bit of a crescendo, he says words to the people, but these words aren’t only just for those people they are for future generations and they still apply. And, so, these are Moses words. “This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach. It’s not in heaven, so that somebody has”…and I’m paraphrasing here…”so that somebody has to go up to heaven and get. It’s not on the other side of the sea so that somebody has to travel to the other side of the sea to get it. The message is very near you. It’s in your mouth, it’s your hearts so that you can follow it. So, see today I have set before you, life and prosperity and death and adversity. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set it before you, life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live. Love the Lord your God and obey Him and remain faithful to Him, for He is your life, and He will prolong your days as you live in the land.” So, like there’s all kinds of things we could talk about but can we just make it simple. This is your choice. Okay. You have a choice and it’s not too hard. Choose to live. And we make that choice by being obedient, by following the path, the…the narrow path that leads to life. That’s the way Jesus will describe it. That is the objective here, that we love God with all of our heart, and that we love each other as ourselves.
When we turn to the gospel of Luke and come back alongside Jesus He is having a confrontation with the religious leaders, the people responsible for what we just said, the people that are responsible to remind everybody to choose life and to love God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as themselves. These are the people that oppose Jesus. These are the people Jesus opposes because He opposes what they’re doing. These are the religious instructors and leaders. These are the people that think they have it figured out. These are the people who think they can speak on behalf of God and control the people while doing it. I mean there’s a lot of parallels, there’s just a lot of things that still are in the world today that Jesus would probably oppose in the same way. And what is He ultimately upset about? He’s upset that the people are being deceived and led astray. And He…He’s exasperated with the hypocrisy of it. And, so, I quote again from the Scriptures, this time from the lips of Jesus instead of Moses, “woe to you Pharisees, you give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb and you bypass justice and love for God. These things you should have done without neglecting the others.” In other words, you’re giving and denying justice at the same time. How’s that gonna work out? Then He goes on. “Woe to you Pharisees, you love the front seat in the synagogue and the greetings in the marketplace.” In other words, you love to be seen. You love to be acknowledged for your position, but you are not obedient to your position. You are not doing what you were ordained or commissioned to do. You’re like unmarked graves. People could walk over it and not even know. So, at this point…point in the story, there’s like a scribe, an expert in the law, a teacher of the law who’s was like, “you know, when you say this stuff that’s kind of offensive to us too.” And, so, he’s just…he just goes there. “Woe to you experts, you people that think you’ve got it all figured out a know it. Woe to you. You are loading the people with burdens that are hard to carry and you’re not willing to carry your own burden, not even with one of your fingers. You’ve taken away the key to knowledge. You didn’t go in and you hindered everyone else from trying to go in.” Okay. We can read that and we can see Jesus confrontation with the religious leaders and we can just kind of like offset them as the antagonistic people in the story or we can understand like this is an opportunity to look in the mirror. How much do we flaunt our religion? Being an expert? Knowing everything? Throwing versus at people to…to control them in some way or another? Throwing versus at people to be right? Posting things to be right? Like our heart isn’t after redemption at all. It’s to be right and to be seen. If that strikes, like if that lands anywhere near home then we need to understand that hard as that might be to swallow, we’re looking an awful lot like a Pharisee. But we have a choice. We get to collaborate. We get to participate.
And the call today coming out of the book of Deuteronomy is that we choose to live, that we choose life, that we choose this narrow path that leads to life, that we understand there is only one source of life. And, so, there is only one place to go for life. If we could get…get that to land, then maybe we could shift our orientation and understand that running hard after God is the only option to live. Everything else is us trying to be our own sovereign, and how…like…like when we learn our lesson? Like, how many walls do we have to hit? How many pits do we have to fall into? When do we learn this? What would be the downside of going for it? What would be the downside of saying, “that’s it, nothing else will distract me, I will not turn to the right or the left. I will love the Lord my God with all of my heart. And in the process, I will love everyone around me as He does because this isn’t my story to tell. I’m a part of something greater and when my chapters told, I want my chapter to read that I was deeply in love with my Father, and we shared a grand adventure together.
Prayer:
Father, we enter into these things. These…these things are actually pretty probing and…and convicting even. They bring us to a point of consideration, and we invite Your Holy Spirit into these things so that we might repent, so that we might change, change our minds and move in a different direction, one that seeks after You and only You, knowing You are the source of life itself. 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:
Hey, it’s Corey up in __ I just finished listening to the DAB today and man I'm…I…I’m in a good mood. Beloved I think it is in Texas, your call about messing yourself it brought some very needed laughs to me. I was on my way to work and I am in tears laughing at that one, laughing with you not at you. It’s been the hardest stretch lately for me and my family and, woah, that one lifted my spirits today on the way to work. So, I appreciate your vulnerability and honesty. That was awesome. Hilarious. So, thank you for your call. I just appreciate you. Alright guys. Thanks. Bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Renzo from Florida. I just want to pray for this lady that called up about her son Micah that is just struggling. He doesn’t know You Lord and is not a believer. I just want to pray for him. Father God I just thank You for everything that You give to us Lord. I thank You for the ability to just pray for people that are in this Daily Audio Bible community, Lord. And just please just help Micah to just accept You as Your Lord and savior. Please help him accept You as Lord and we just thank You for everything You do Lord. Thank You for sending Your son down on the cross for us. Thank You, Jesus for everything You do for us. And just please just help his mom just keep praying for him and trusting in the Lord. And please help them to just have faith that surpasses all understanding. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Jesus loves you guys. I’m praying for you guys. God bless.
Happy Good Friday DABbers this is Colette calling from California I hope that your day is going as well as it could be knowing that our Lord and savior Jesus Christ gave up His life so that we could have life. I’d like to make a comment regarding the sister who shared the funny story with us of her sitting on a zoom call and thinking that she was quietly just going to express herself and ended up sitting in her own mess. At the risk of spiritualizing that scenario some things did occur to me, that there were some biblical principles in that and there are oftentimes we are making decisions and we end up sitting in our own mess because we did not consult the Lord. Something as simple as, “well I’m not going to claim that on my taxes” and then we get audited and end up sitting in our own mess. “O I think I’ll just date him I know he doesn’t know the Lord and I know about you know being unequally yoked, but I think it’ll be OK” and it blows up in our faces. So, we end up doing what? Sitting in our own mess. I’m sure each of you can think about a scenario where you made your own decision outside of Gods, you know, principles and values and we end up sitting in our own mess. So, thank you sister for sharing that story. I did get quite a giggle out of it and certainly brought to mind a lot of lessons as well. God bless everyone.
Hey DAB family this is Brookie 545 I’m just calling to pray for some people from April 3rd. Victoria Soldier we just continue to lift up your sister-in-law who’s in the hospital for healing and your nephew who’s in jail. Lord we ask that You just unite this family and just create a peace and just Your serenity over this time. Lord we just pray for repentance where it needs to be in her nephew and we just ask for her sister-in-law just to trust You Lord with her son’s life. And we lift up Victor to You, Delta Alpha Foxtrots friend who is in the hospital suffering from covid who just went into incubation. Lord You are the ultimate healer. Holy Spirit just guide the doctors with wisdom and knowledge. Give peace to the family. God we are just asking for a miracle that this man walks out of the hospital healthy and alive. Lord I also lift up sparky from Texas to You and praise God that they found out why he was depressed, the testosterone levels. God I just pray that You give the doctors wisdom and knowledge to find the correct treatment, to correct his depression and whatever else is ailing. And Lord I just thank You that his family has been so supportive. Lord we just trust You going forward in this process and again I just praise You for those answers. And God I also lift up Mattie to You. I thank You that she is so focused and wanting to persevere in school and work with this new job. God I just ask that You give her calmness, peace, wisdom, perseverance and just trust in You that You are going to work all things for good. I pray that You bring the right people in her life to come alongside her in this time, that You give her good community and we just trust You in the process. Amen.
Good
morning this is Donna from California and I woke up with Mommy’s Little Rock
from Arkansas on my mind this morning. You had called in on April 1st
lost your mom a few months ago, your beloved mom. I’m so sorry for your loss. I
was reminded though of the passage in scripture about when Jesus was on the
cross. I’ll just read it. It’s so beautiful and it’s a very good day to be
reading it it’s Holy Saturday. When Jesus saw his mother there and the disciple
who he loved standing nearby he said to her, woman here is your son and to the
disciple here is your mother. From that time on this disciple took her into his
home. And you know, you’ve got…we are all your mom, where all your mom’s here
and we’ll never take the place of your own mom, your…your flesh and blood mom
but we are all each others…we all belong to each other and I just wanted to
reach out to you and tell you that that’s the beauty of…of being a part of a
community such as this. We…we have sons and daughters, we have moms, we have
dads, we have brothers and sisters. It’s a big family. It’s a wonderful family.
And I just…I send you a great big hug. The other thing I would encourage is, I
don’t know if you have earthly children, but you do have children here. Reach
out to them too. Be the mom for them. And I hope you have a beautiful
resurrection day.