Judges 21:1- Ruth 1:22, John 4:4-42, Psalms 105:1-15, Proverbs 14:24-25
Today is the 5th day of May, Cinco de Mayo, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we gather around the Global Campfire to take the next step forward. In the Old Testament we’ve been reading from the book of Judges and we’ve found our way into a pretty difficult story, a very…a horrible story yesterday and it happens to be the last story in the book of Judges. And, so, we will conclude what we began yesterday by concluding the 21st chapter of Judges and then we’ll turn the page into the next book and we’ll talk about that when we get there. It’s the book of Ruth. So, let’s dive in and bring to a conclusion the book of Judges and this difficult story that we find ourselves in, where a woman has been raped to death then her body parts have been sent to all the tribes who have come together to go against the perpetrators of the violence which were people…the people of the men of Gibeah, which is a town in the tribe of Benjamin. As it turned out, Civil War broke out and the tribe of Benjamin, although many non-Benjamites lost their lives in battle, the tribe of Benjamin is nearly completely destroyed. And, so, we kind of pick up the story in the aftermath of that final battle when Benjamin…when Benjamin’s men are nearly annihilated. Judges chapter 21.
Introduction to the book of Ruth:
Okay. So, that concludes the book of Judges, which is its own thing…like it’s his own territory. We really do see what it’s telling us. There is no king and everybody’s doing what they want and it’s a tribal time, and there is no cohesive leadership. And, so, this is what happens. And the people have…they’re chasing the foreign gods of the…of the other people in the land. And, so, I mentioned that the book of Judges continually reminds us that there’s no king. And that’s how it ends. “In those…” that…that’s the last verse, “in those days Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit”, which lets us turn the page. And really at this time of the year after going through what we’ve gone through, through the book of Joshua and the conquest of the settling of the promised land and then the slide of the next couple centuries into the time of the Judges, turning the page feels like a sigh of relief. And the territory that we’re turning the page into is a breath of fresh spring air. Basically, the story that we’re about to read is not a long story. It’s mainly the story about three people, two women and one man who show character and honor. And these women are valiant women. And after what we just read it's…it’s such a kindness to read a story of valiant women. And this isn’t just a transitional story to kind of give us a little bit of relief from what we’ve been experiencing in Judges. It’s a story with consequence because of Ruth’s and her mother-in-law, Naomi’s faithfulness. One day king David would be born. And through the line of King David Jesus would come. So, let’s go ahead and take a deep breath and exhale as we turn the page and move into some new territory. Ruth chapter 1.
Commentary:
Okay. So, we concluded the book of Judges with a pretty riveting story and we worked our way through that story, found out that there were just 600 people, 600 men left in the tribe of Benjamin and the move that the rest of Israel made to try to preserve that tribe so that it would disappear from the face of the earth. And then we ended being told, “this is…this is what everybody was doing. They were doing whatever they thought was right. They were doing whatever they wanted. There was no king”, which…which has been the story of the Judges.
Then we turned into the book of Ruth and…yeah…it’s just like an exhale. The complexion changes, although we are still in the time of the Judges, which is what Ruth tells us right from the get go. We’re not really dealing with a specific judge, somebody who rose up to lead Israel into battle against her enemies. Rather, this is a story situated in the time of the Judges but it’s dealing much more with…with family, with how people were living during this time. Everyone was doing what was right in their own eyes, which implies that everybody was doing wrong. But that’s not true. Some people wanted to do right. Doing right was right in their eyes, and we see this beginning to play out in the story of Ruth.
In the gospel of John we have…we have an interesting concept that we need to kinda get our minds wrapped around because it would explain a lot of things. We have talked plenty about like the wilderness and the message of the wilderness and the lessons that we need to learn, that we are utterly dependent upon God, and what a relief that is, that we don’t have to worry about everything, that we are utterly dependent on God. And all of the anxiety and all of the depression and frustration that we can experience often is that we can’t control things. But we could just fall. We could just surrender. We could lay back and understand that we are utterly dependent upon God. But that’s kind of how this all works. That’s kind of how His kingdom works. And that kinda plays out a little bit in John with some things for us to consider. I mean let's…let’s just consider our own lives. Let’s say that we want to…we want to invest in something. We have little money, and we see this little piece of property and we think, “wow…if I but this low I can sell it high. And, so, we buy it and we hold onto it so that it can double, triple, whatever, and so we can make a profit. We took the risk, we made the investment, we waited the time, and then we sold when we could, or any other kind of thing. Basically, we have this concept of if I put in X amount of effort or money than I should receive no less than X, but I should receive Y, I should receive more. You win some you lose some. But the whole idea is, my effort, whether that be financial effort, investment effort, or just sweat equity effort or just work, my effort toward this goal will give me back more than I started with in the end. And that’s fine. That’s a fine way to think. It’s just slightly different in God’s kingdom because we kind of carry this theory. Like my effort should yield to me more than I put in if I do this right. This kind of carries over into our spirituality. I put in this amount of effort for God then He turns around and sends me back my direct blessings because of my direct effort. So, I quote Jesus here. “I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work and you have reaped the benefit of their labor”, right? So, the converse would also be true. There will be times where you will sow and not see that harvest. Somebody else is gonna come and reap that harvest. In other words, we’re all sowing and reaping all the time. There are seeds that have been planted in people’s lives, people that you know or people that you will know but you do not know yet, seeds have been planted in their lives and have been watered along the way by other people so that one day you could come along and reap the harvest. And you are planting seeds. You may not even know that you planted one, but it will be watered and someday somewhere somebody’s gonna reap that harvest. So, what’s the point here? The point is in God’s kingdom we are all in this together because we are all on a level playing field. We are all ultimately utterly dependent upon God. And if we would get about the business of opening our eyes and seeing His kingdom and revealing His kingdom and participating in the love of God for this world, and for its people than we…we would understand that we are in this together. There is no lack. Lack comes when we get divided from each other and then we have to hoard and then we have to go through this process of thinking, “if I do, X then I should receive Y in return.” Basically, what we learn from the Scriptures is that if we will believe and trust then our eyes will be opened, and we will realize that it’s all already ours. And, so, let’s pour that into our coffee and stir it around, think it over today because it…it gives us a check on our motives and it realigns us to the truth of our dependence on God.
Prayer:
And, so, come Holy Spirit. Help us to look at things this way, that we don’t put in a bunch of effort with a certain expectation, that we follow Your leading and we do whatever is necessary, whatever we can wherever we are, whenever You need us knowing that we are in this together. And when we give, we may not get right back from that same person or that same entity but it’s coming from somewhere because we are dependent on You. And ultimately everything we have is a gift from Your hand including this next breath. 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 this is Natalie from Kansas City it’s my first-time calling in. My boyfriend Micah, I know you guys have heard him, he calls and often, Micah in Awe. He called in and asked for prayers for my thyroid nodules that I was getting biopsied, and they came back benign. So, those prayers worked. I wanted to call and say thank you so much for all of you that prayed for me, that sent good positive thoughts. I appreciate it because I was really struggling on not worrying about it. I wasn’t sleeping. I was just not trusting God to…to take care of me and he did, and I want to thank all of you for praying for me. I know this is my first time calling but I listen to you guys and I pray for you guys and I cry with you guys. And I’m not really one that calls in. I’m kind of shy. So, I just wanted to say thank you and maybe I’ll call in again. Bye.
Hey DAB family this is Stephanie from Bangalore and I feel like I should have probably called in prayer requests earlier and maybe I will continue to…to keep you updated. I know that this may not play. It’s Saturday here and now and it may not play until Saturday of next week. I don’t know but things are dire in India right now. I know that the temptation is to see what’s on the news and think oh it’s being, you know, over…over exaggerated. And there may be some of that. I haven’t watched the US news so I don’t know but I will say that I know of many people in my church right now who are sick. And I know that the…I mean there’s one guy who came to test my father-in-law…yeah…I’ll get to that in a minute…and he’s been testing 80 people a day himself. So, it's…it’s very bad and the shortages are very, very real. We just had a church member lose her mother because they couldn’t get an ICU bed and couldn’t keep her oxygen saturation’s up. So, it’s a very difficult time here in India. So, pray for all of us. For my family. Specifically, my mother-in-law has covid. For reasons the doctor didn’t want us to get her tested for a while. And, so, she finally got tested and tested positive. Seems like she’s on the upswing now. She’s had a…we know she’s had it for at least a week, a little over a week and she’s on medications and everything but my husband and my father-in-law have been tested. My sister-in-law also probably has it. I think she finally got tested as well. So, prayers needed please for India. Thanks. Love you family.
Hi family this is Soaring on Eagles Wings from Canada. Thank you, Brian for opening my eyes to the story of Jephthah and letting me see how doing things according to our own ways can cause us to make decisions which God has never asked us to do. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Song of Solomon from India, I heard you call in and I was so happy because I’ve been praying for you. I’ve been praying for India. I’m asking God to send help into India as the people are in desperate need and only our provider can send the doctors and the resources and the equipment, everything that is needed. Leah from Detroit, I heard your…your cry to ask this community. You’re going through this emotional upheaval. You have some physical issues that the doctor aren’t able to diagnose. While the great physician is our Abba Father and I’m asking him to look down upon you today, guide the doctors, give them wisdom and you too so you can see the part you can play in your own health. I pray that you’d be able to do your job and do it well. Father God deliver her from that which is trying to keep her in bondage. Renzo from Florida, I am so praying for you today. You’re always calling in to pray for others, never yourself. Father God open the windows of heaven. Pour forth such a blessing in…in Renzo’s life and may he be an instrument of Yours to bring others into the…Your Kingdom. Thank you, God for all those that listen in on this podcast, for those that their prayer requests come into you. I join them in prayer, and I thank You Father God.
My name is Angie, and this is my first time calling but I’m very new to Daily Audio Bible and I’m just learning so much. And, so, I wanted to say thank you first. The stories just come alive to me whereas before I haven’t really been able to follow them very good or understand them. But anyways so my prayer request is for a relationship with God, and Jesus I guess that I’ve never really had that I’m searching for. I’m searching for it because I’ve sort of kind of lost my own family. Anyways…and in order to get my family back, and this sounds wrong, but in order to get my family back this is what I know I need to do. And…and it’s also what I want and what I’ve always tried to get in my life but somehow it never has happened, I guess, in the way that I feel happy or fulfilled, the way I believe you do feel once you have that relationship with Jesus that everybody talks about. So, that’s what I’m searching for…just happiness and security in Jesus and understanding and relationship. Thank you so much. Thanks again. Bye.
You gave us your word to clearly revealed to us our own
powerlessness
and then you turned around and gave us your own dear son to clearly reveal to
us your own magnanimousness
help me truly internalize the message that these two wonderful gifts reveal
first that you knew I would never be able to transcend my own fragility
unless you provided a catalyst through which I could heal
secondly that all I had to do at least for my part
was to acknowledge and confess my condition and believe in Jesus your son with
all my heart
believing that he really is your son and has all power to save
not only in this life but also beyond the grave
it sounds so simple so easy to do
but I can definitely confess that that is not true
because every day is a struggle every step of the way
because there’s a part of me that always wants to do things my own way
to work out my own problems with the strength of my own hands
to draw my own line of demarcation and to make my own stance
but after repeatedly trying and failing over and over again
I’m happy to confess that I’ve reached my wits end
and I’m very thankful father for the catalyst of your son
and for showing me how easily this battle can truly be won
blindtony1016@gmail.com. I’d like to give a shout out to Egbert. It was nice hearing your voice again and knowing that all is well with you. And also, Tony the truck driver. It’s good to…definitely good to hear your voice again and to know that AJ is doing well. It’s hard to believe he’s 20 now. Time is passing so fast. And once again Brian and the Hardin family, first off congratulations on the birth of Reagan and I want to thank you for this wonderful…
Hello family it’s Shannon from Salem Oregon and I am calling to rejoice, and we are rejoicing with the Browns and the Hardin’s - China and Ben and family. Congratulations! We are so excited for you and we pray you that the Lord blesses Reagan and all of your family, that He would continue pouring out those blessings of the generations over Reagan and all of you. So, welcome Reagan. I also am rejoicing and would love too for you all to rejoice with me. I graduate on May 8th. Woo Hoo! With my Master of Arts in school counseling. I started my school program an August of 2019 and none of us had any idea what was around the bend with COVID-19. It has been a challenge to do my master’s program and be here for my family, do my different internships and…and come through. And the Lord has done it. He has brought me through. He is faithful. So, I get to walk across the stage next week. I don’t get to have any guests with me in person because of the all the covid regulations and I’m not going back into extreme risk, but at least I get to do a ceremony because last year’s cohort didn’t get to do that. So, I am celebrating in all the ways that I can including sharing this story with all of you. So, thank you. I know many of you have prayed for me and my family over the last couple of years as I’ve called in. So, thank you. I love you. God is faithful. And please continue to pray for me and all of those educators out there who are working hard to care for kids and families. Thank you.