Ezekiel 21:1-22:31, Hebrews 10:1-17, Psalms 108:1-13, Proverbs 27:12
Today is the 10th day of November welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we take the next step forward, find ourselves around the Global Campfire and move forward together. And that of course will lead us…well that’ll lead us right to where we left off yesterday, which will put us back in the book of Ezekiel and the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. We’ve been reading from the evangelical heritage version this week which we will continue to do while it’s still this week. Today Ezekiel chapters 21 and 22.
Commentary:
Okay. We were talking yesterday from our reading in the letter to the Hebrews about the Hebrew centric nature of Hebrews, that Hebrews is written to Hebrew people, to Jewish people who were…who were familiar with the Hebrew culture, but also very familiar with the Hebrew religion, which is what we read when we read the…the Hebrew Scriptures or the Old Testament. And we were talking about the…the controversial nature of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and why a Hebrew person would’ve been intrigued, likely because boy it’s good news. That’s the thing. It’s good news. If it’s true, it’s good news. But how difficult it was for them to accept that this was actually good news from God. And so, let’s just go back into that today and look at it a little bit more because we were talking about sacrifices yesterday and the end of the sacrificial system. Essentially, a…the end of a way of life that these people had known for centuries, many many centuries. So, Hebrews chapter 10, which is where we spent our time today begins by saying, and I quote…and before I even quote this, before I even quote this, if you put yourself back in the mindset that you’ve grown up Hebrew, right? And, so, sacrifice and all of the rituals associated with Judaism are a part of your life. You…you celebrate the holidays and the festivals. You practice the Sabbath. You…you are involved in this, so you understand what it is that you think is expected of you by God. And sacrifice is part of the thing that you believe is…is expected of you by God. This atones for your sins. This washes away your sin and separation from God. So now, with that in mind we begin Hebrews chapter 10. “The law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the actual realization of those things. It will never be able to make perfect those who continually offer the same sacrifices year after year. If it could do this, would they not have stopped bringing sacrifices because the worshipers once they were cleansed would no longer have a bad conscience about sins. Instead, these sacrifices reminded them of their sins, year after year. The fact is that the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins.” We can read that from the book of Hebrews and not even know that that is a very very controversial statement. Once again, what they have to wrap their minds around is that they were waiting for a Savior who did come. Like that would be the first place, the first point of belief, who did come. He was Jesus, the one who was crucified. And then that crucified, that executed portion, that’s a leap of faith to get…a hurdle to get over as well because they were not expecting their Savior to come and be dead. They were expecting their Savior to come and take over Jerusalem, not die on a cross outside the walls of Jerusalem. And, so, many people hearing this message just considered it to be heretical. Like it's…it’s heresy. It's…it's…it’s blasphemy even. And there are many levels that this goes on. Let’s remember the Hebrew identity. We have a read of it. We…that’s what we’ve been reading since January in the Old Testament, this formation of a people through this man named Abraham who was in covenant with God, and these were God’s chosen people. And through these people they received God’s law through…through their Prophet Moses. These are not people that feel unfamiliar with God or unfamiliar…unfamiliar with what they think God wants from them. They believe they’re chosen by God, and they have been given a perfect and holy law that is exclusive and perfect for the Hebrew people. So, they’re being told that that’s done, like it’s accomplished. Or as Jesus said on the cross, “it is finished.” And that is hard for them to get their minds around. And an easy enough way for us to try to put ourselves in that same position is to imagine now as believers in Jesus, some of us new believers in Jesus, maybe some of you are here, and maybe you have known the Lord for a month and you’ve come here to find out about the Bible and then some of your seasoned and have been walking with Jesus maybe most of your life. Nevertheless, you have come to an understanding about what you think you know at this point in time. And, so, as believers right now, we…we…we don’t practice sacrifice, right? Like nobody’s planning to sacrifice a sheep or goat or a puppy or anything anytime soon, especially in some sort of religious ritual that we believe that is necessary that…that…that it’s something that God desires and wants. What we understand is that we are a living sacrifice to God, that we…that we live sacrificially on behalf of the kingdom of God as…as we let this good news be known in the world. But that’s about as far as it goes in terms of like blood sacrifice. So, what we would have to imagine, then, is that somebody super famous in the Christian ranks, somebody with the really really monstrous megaphone is able to get word out that they feel like they’ve heard from God and that the sacrificial system is to be reinstated, thus saith the Lord, and in that next year on the first of January this is to go into effect. And, so, it will be again necessary than for us to atone for our sins with blood sacrifice. And, so, we need…you know…and we need to prepare for that. You can only imagine how that would light up social media among Christian people because the Internet gets lit up by Christian people for way less than something like that. And people…people get thrown under the bus or chastised or even persecuted for believing way, way less than that. So, for us to get our minds around returning to a sacrificial system, it’s like we can’t even…we wouldn’t even know how to go there. And we certainly would dismiss it. And for some, we would call it heresy. We would…yeah…go after the…the messenger. Any number of things would happen that wouldn’t be good because we wouldn’t be able to believe that that’s what God wants. That’s not too…I mean…that’s just the reverse of what Hebrew people were needing to become aware of and believe about Jesus. So, the only real way for that to work and the only opening for a person’s mind and heart that was Hebrew practicing Mosaic law, God’s law, who are being told that that law has reached its conclusion and a new covenant is being initiated, the only way to get your mind around that would be to understand in your culture that there was a Savior foretold. And that is what we’re beginning to see develop in the letter to the Hebrews. The argument is this is not a newfangled religion. This isn’t some kind of messed up version of the religion that we already have. This was expected. This new covenant was expected. It was foretold. We’ve been waiting for this. The prophets have spoken about this. This isn’t heresy. This isn’t a new religion even. And God surely isn’t trying to get other people to believe in a different God. Rather, He’s trying to expand their awareness of God and His presence. And it was foretold. It was to be expected. That is really the only way for them to approach this good news in a way that they can understand and appreciate and accept and begin to live into it. This isn’t new. It has been expected for a very long time and it’s happening now. And that’s good. That gives us some context for what we’re reading through and helps us to put ourselves in the position of first century Jewish people who are…who are hearing the good news and how they would’ve received it. But kind of putting ourselves in a position of modern times and like having some new thing revealed if it hadn’t been foretold…if we didn’t have any context for it, we would be doing the same thing, but that does give us the opportunity to consider because God talks about doing new things a lot in the Bible. What if God did do a new thing and you didn’t understand it? How would you respond Would you go, “that’s heresy” and then persecute the messenger? What if God was doing a new thing that brought our awareness of His presence in our lives and His activity in the world more clear to us? Would we reject it because it’s new or because it messes with our own paradigms? Because what we’re seeing in the letter to the Hebrews is that God did do that and He didn’t seem to mind that He was messing with peoples paradigms, that He was messing with what they thought they had figured out about Him and what had been sort of cemented in place so that it is immovable. God didn’t seem to mind coming the way that He did and doing the work that He did and disrupting things the way that He did. He didn’t seem to mind that. We, 2000 years in the future who aren’t Jewish, who mostly are Gentile who are reading these things and may have read them our entire lives, we should now be beginning to understand that the gospel is disruptive and it always has been. And anything that we cement in place that will thwart our awareness of His presence and guidance in our lives, He just…He just doesn’t seem to care about that stuff. We’ve been reading the Bible an awful long time, like we’re so close now to concluding our journey that we…we should have a pretty good grasp on the personality and essence of the Scriptures and we should be pretty clear that God does what God does. God is God. And what we think about it often times is less important to God than doing what is what God’s will is. And God’s will is perfect and right and just and true and good, but He also does not mind shaking things up to shake us awake and shake us free.
Prayer:
Holy Spirit as we look back and are assured of how our salvation were…as we understand the good news from the letter to the Hebrews we also understand how this would’ve been received. And then we have to put the mirror in front of our own eyes and think of the ways in which we are the same way or would’ve done the same thing and rejected what You were doing. And Holy Spirt come and help us to become aware of some of the maybe smaller ways that we’ve thwarted what You wanted to do. We’ve just rejected it because we can’t imagine that You would do things in a certain way, we think You do things only a certain way with certain people at certain times for certain reasons and we go around telling everybody what You do and don’t do when…when that’s pretty arrogant. You are the God of all things, the Creator of all things, the Sustainer of all things. You will do what is right. You will do what You will do regardless of what we think about it. Help us to humble ourselves to become aware of the myriad of ways that You are working all around us that we ignore, that we don’t pay any attention to because we don’t have a context, we don’t have a paradigm for it. Holy Spirit come, we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudiobible.com is the home base and its where you find out what’s going on around here and somethings going on around. There’s always something going on around here but sometimes there are new things going on around here. And that will be the case in the next couple of weeks. So, today I want to announce the arrival…and boy there really have been supply-chain problems in the world this year, but the arrival of our Klean Canteens, the 2021 edition. And I know a lot of folks out there wait for these to come in stock because we don’t keep them in stock because they’re really expensive for us to get manufactured. And, so, once or twice a year we’ll bring them in, and this will be our time for this year. Brand-new look. This year we have a cream, a beautiful, creamy kind or pearly finish with a tope lid, dark gray Global Campfire logo, super classy. I love them. And if you’re hear and you’re like, “this is my first year. I’ve never really heard…what is this about?” Well…we’re kind of coffee people around here, which is not to say they we’re not tea people around here. I drink tea just about every day as well as coffee. And it’s been well over a decade now that we’ve had the Windfarm coffee brand and roasted our own coffee at altitude in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and we ship them all over the world. And we source the finest quality teas for our Windfarm tea. So, lots of people have this delivered every…every month because we ship out a new shipment every month to those who receive it every month. Or you can just go and kind of get some tea or pick out which varietal of coffee that you want and have that shipped to you fresh. And for the longest time I was on a search for the best possible thing to drink coffee or tea out of, like some…something that would keep my coffee warm because I like to sip it. I don’t like just sit down usually and drink a full cup of coffee in the space of 15 minutes or whatever. I…I like to kinda carry my coffee all along the way through my morning all the way through the Daily Audio Bible sometime kinda sipping it along the way. And it was super hard to find kinda what I was looking for. So, I’d like get a thermos and it’s like okay that’ll kinda keep it warm, but I gotta keep pouring cups of coffee out of this thermos. I want something that’s just standalone, that I could just reach over and take a drink out of and then everyone. And then I remember one year kinda finding one of those coaster things, right, that you can plug in and you put your…you put your coffee mug on it and it sort of heats the bottom of your coffee mug keeping your coffee warm. Problem with that is it’s easy to spill, but the bigger problem is…it makes it…for me…to my taste buds…it made my coffee taste like I was drinking a liquid pencil. And I remember kind of frequenting you know out…outdoor outfitter kind of places and like REI or whatever and they had Klean canteens. I didn’t really know what they were. And several years ago I’d have to count back, but many years ago now we were traveling, we were in Portland, Oregon. And that region of the United States is kinda known for being a coffee region. And I was in a coffee shop and found thee Klean canteens that were self-contained and they were double-walled and they used food grade stainless steel and they were conscientious in the manufacturing process. So, there’s a lot of good things going for it, but it was kind of expensive. And I was like, “I don’t Know” but I ended up going for it and have never looked back. Loved it so much, used it so often, carried all over the world with me that I finally was like who is…like I want to find this company and see if we can make these because that coffee shop did. And. So, what do you gotta do. And it took a while and then we were able to make our own Klean canteens and it’s an offering that’s the best I have been able to find for that perfect coffee mug, that thing that will keep the coffee warm and drinkable pretty much the whole day. And although I mostly use it for hot beverages I have also tried cold beverages. Got in the car for a long car drive, put some ice in my Klean canteen, filled it up with water and it’s ice in the evening. And what better way to drink excellent coffee then in a container that’s gonna treat it properly. And, so, these Klean canteens are that, our offering, our pairing with our coffee. When we are able to bring them in stock they last about a week. And, so, maybe a week maybe less and they’ll be gone, at least from us and they’ll be all over the world serving their purpose, hopefully bringing enjoyment and hopefully they come alongside you as we take the next step forward every day through the Scriptures. So, the 2021 edition of the Klean canteen Global Campfire edition is available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop now while supplies last. If you go to dailyaudiobible.com you’ll find a little navigation thing at the top. One of those says Shop. They’re in the Shop. Or if you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app you can push the Drawer icon in the upper left-hand corner and when that drawer pops open one of those categories is the Shop. And once you’re in the shop there’s a bunch of categories but if you go like into the Global Campfire section or the Lifestyle section you’ll find the Klean canteen 2021 edition. There’s some nice pictures to show you what it looks like. And, so, this is the announcement and I fully expect because this is what always happens, they won’t last long. In fact, I know people who wait for this. So, like I haven’t even been able to get through this announcement before it’s already ordered. So, plenty of things in life that we can procrastinate about. This is probably not one of them if you’re interested. When they are gone they will be gone. So, don’t miss out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well. There is a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.
And, as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.
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 DAB family this is Greg from Bothell WA it is November 6th and I’m behind. I’m listening to November 4th and I just want to start praying for some people. Aussie Bear. I heard you and I’m praying for you and Jody, your…your bully contact. Lord Jesus I just pray that this enemy that our hearts could be turned to her Jody all of us that hear this prayer from Aussie Bear that we would come alongside and we would find a way that our hearts could turn toward compassion and a vision that You have for Aussie and You have a vision for Jody and that empathy and kindness and love that we would pray this prayer Lord that father forgive them they know not what they do. I also want You to just come alongside Aussie because Aussie Bear is…is struggling with finding a place in her heart to connect with someone she doesn’t like. And I know what that’s like Lord. And I pray that You would help Aussie Bear just to…to find a place that You…You would find that You would come…Your heart would come…would fill her up and that when she goes into that grocery store and runs into Aussie….I mean she runs into Jody that she would know that…that she is hurting inside that…that she is sad inside and that she has darkness and she needs the light, she needs the salt of Your word and Your truth and Your Spirit. Lord Jesus I just pray Aussie Bear would continue to call in and let us know how she’s doing, that we can continue to encourage her to love.
Greetings Daily Audio Bible family I’ve called in before seeking prayer just about the fact that I am the sole caregiver for my mom who has dementia and how challenging that’s been over the last couple of years. I’m calling in again because I’ve reached a bit of a tough decision point about whether or not it’s possible for my mom to continue to stay in the home with me doing this by myself. It’s just…it’s impacting my…my work and mental health and personal life and I’m hitting…hitting a wall in terms of just needing to get back to some element of normalcy. But this process of finding a facility that I can be comfortable with that’s also affordable, and you know that I think my mom will be happy in is just turning out to be so extremely difficult. And I have a couple of options I’m looking at right now and I just…it’s just such a hard decision. I’m sure a lot of it is just me being guilt ridden. So, I’m just asking for prayer that I have, you know, a clear head and I’m able to see clearly, you know, what the best options and next steps are and that whatever those are it…it creates safety and peace and happiness for my mom but also just peace and comfort from me. Thank you in advance for the prayers. I…I just feel so lost and stuck in this process right now.
I want to give thanks to Brian and the Hardin family just for the gift of scripture for the context. I mean just the simple words of Hebrews and…and who the audience is it’s being written for. I cherish that you use…you use the gift of context of things sharing how it affects us in our lives. I am so grateful, and I thank you so much for this Bible study, daily scripture, how much I have been blessed by this. I pray for all of you. I pray for you as you go through the holidays that you’ll be protected from illness, protected from greed and be given anything that you need, food, groceries, utilities. I pray for all of you who are in those needs. I thank You and praise You Lord for the goodness that You have for all of us here at the global campsite. Thank you.
Hello this is Faith Walker of Tennessee I am calling today to encourage and to pray for Rodney who is paralyzed and is just believing God for his wife to come back. God has done great and miraculous things in my life. 15 years ago, I became paralyzed, and the doctors did all they could to try to get me to walk again and my limbs to operate. After my situation of becoming paralyzed I began to just seek the Lord with all my heart, soul, in mind. I in the word and all I could do. It was during that season that I found Daily Audio Bible which became a daily and still is a daily encouragement to me. I’m so glad to be in this community and I’m glad you found this community because prayer change things. Over the years the Lord has begun to heal my body bringing limbs back to operation again. Today I’m still para…paraplegic but I’m paraplegic incomplete. That means I have some movement returning in my body. I’m up walking now with a limp and a cane whereas before I was in a wheelchair and could not move one limb of my legs. Hey, I give God the glory today. Rodney you be encouraged. God, we pray for Rodney today that he should have faith to believe the impossible. God, we pray God that he will stand forth on the word of God as he continues to commit himself in the word and we believe that for his family being put back together. God…
Hello DAB family I am a first-time caller. I’ve been in this community since January 1st of this year, and you all have been such a blessing to my life. Thank you so much. I’m going to go by the game Colorado Cab and I’m calling because I think we are due for a praise report, and I couldn’t wait to share mine with you. I have a niece and several nephews I have been praying for since the moment they came out of the womb. I have prayed that they would live a life coming to know the Lord Jesus. I live so far away from them, and my brother and sister and their families are not Christ followers. And it’s always weighed heavily on my heart that these kids might not be exposed to the love of Christ. And boy my prayers have been answered. My 19-year-old nephew is a marine and he attends church regularly on his base praise the Lord. My other nephew just began his freshman year of college and of all places he chose a private Christian School. Praise the Lord. My prayers have been answered. I am so thankful. Even my 13-year-old niece has shared with me that she has a Bible in her room, and I know it’s because she has friends from school who have invited her to go to church. Praise the Lord. These children are becoming to know the Lord and being exposed to people who love Jesus. I’m so thankful. I wanted to let all of the parents know in this in this community that I pray for your children as well. No matter their age, whether they’re teenagers 20s, 30s, 40s. 50s it is never too late for your children to return to the Lord. There is always hope and I am standing in prayer and agreement to all of you who are calling out in prayer for your sons and daughters. And Brian I also wanted to let you know I’ve heard callers mention that they love hearing those words I love you at the end of your podcast. I do not have my own children. I am single and I don’t hear those words often. So, thank you so so much. They mean a lot to me. I love you too. I love…
Good morning, DABbers this is Running Desperately to Jesus also known as Staying Desperately Connected to Jesus. And I cannot say desperately more than I can with emphasis as of right now. This call goes out to Jeremy. You called into the community prayer line on October 16th. Today is November 9th…excuse me…6th I believe, and you called in because you felt that you didn’t have any friends and that, you know, you reach out to people, but it seems like it’s rarely done to you. And that you desperately would like to have friends. Jeremy, as I said today is November beginning of November and I was just crying out to God this morning, God why do I not have friends? Why does no one ever invite me over? Why is it that when I try and be friends with other people they’ve already created or developed or have a closed circle that's…that I cannot break into. So, I’m alone. I’m alone all the time. I’m alone through holidays. I’m alone on my birthday. I’m alone on any holiday that you can think of. I live by myself, everything. I go every place by myself. So, Jeremy the only thing I can say to you as well as I’m encouraging myself is hang on to God. Because this sometimes can be a cold lonely world and when we don’t have someone down here to go and cry to or laugh with, we know that we have a Father…a Father a friend that will never leave us nor forsake us. And that is God. So, I’m standing in the gap for both of us that God one day if it is His will to send us someone a godly person that will also have something in common with us. Running Desperately to Jesus. Stay encouraged.