Exodus 17:8-19:15, Matthew 22:34-23:12, Psalm 27:7-14, Proverbs 6:27-35
Today is the third day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian. It’s a joy to be here with you today, like it is every day as we come in and gather around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together and I’m glad for the campfire because it’s chilly outside here in the rolling hills of Tennessee. But hopefully it’s warm in our hearts all around the world. So, this week we’re reading from the Common English Bible and picking up where we left off yesterday brings us back into the book of Exodus and we are fully in the wilderness at this point. The story that began with a man named Abram, who became Abraham has flourished into a vast multitude of people who are now following God into the wilderness under the leadership of Moses, Exodus chapter 17 verse 8 through 19 verse 15.
Commentary:
Alright so, in the book of Exodus, Moses gets some pretty timely and important advice from his, from his father-in-law Jethro, who has brought Moses family back to him in the wilderness. So, Jethro gets a firsthand account of all that God has been doing in the way that He set the Israelites free from their captivity in Egypt. And let’s remember Moses, the Moses that asked God to send somebody else at the burning bush like, it wasn’t his aspiration to become this mighty leader of all of these people, this is what God invited him into. And so, Moses has been obeying what the Lord tells him to do. But other than that, he doesn’t really know what to do and so, they’re figuring it out. And so, we’re seeing this form all around us as we’re reading the story. So, as the story goes, Jethro is observing Moses and Moses spends his days making judgments for the people who have conflict with each other like, he’s the judge, he makes the choices, but this is all day, every day. And so, if you’ve ever been a leader of any kind of group of people and you think like, all day every day, my job is to solve people’s problems without any backup, without anybody to share the load, then you know that that is the recipe for complete burnout and Jethro tells Moses this. Basically, you’re gonna burn yourself out. This isn’t really going to be good long-term for anybody, it’s not going to be good for you, you’re gonna be exhausted. It’s not gonna be good for the people, this is too much of a burden for anyone person to carry and your exhaustion isn’t going to give them good, wise choices. So, Moses listens to his father-in-law and begins a process of appointing people to help, of delegating responsibilities to honorable people who can serve and help. And just prior to that we experienced Israel’s first kind of military conflict with the Amalekites and Moses had gone up on a hill with his brother Aaron and another leader named Her. And when he lifted up his staff and his arms and the people could see that than the Israelites were winning the battle but when he had to put his arms down to rest that they began to lose the battle. So, that had to figure out a way to keep Moses arms up. So, for a while it’s, so he can rest his arms on stones but in the end they have to hold his arms up and that’s legit. I mean, have you ever tried to hold your arms up. Like, if you just hold your arms out at your side, you can hold them there. And I remember this even from gym class, our gym teacher when I was a kid showing this because none of us believed it. You hold your arms out at your sides, and it feels like I could do this all day every day but five minutes later and you’re realizing that you can’t. And so, what we see here is that one of the first lessons that are being learned out in the wilderness is a lesson for Moses. The lesson Moses is beginning to understand is this particular assignment cannot be done by one person, the entire formation of a people and a culture is underway. And Moses capacity for human leadership is finite and this helps us to consider the fact that we often overextend ourselves in ways that are not sustainable and when we have more on our plate than we can handle or too many plates spinning or too many balls up in the air or whatever metaphor we want to use the end result is that things begin to fall through the cracks and we experience exhaustion and burnout. And culturally we have been programmed basically to think that we can do anything as an army of one. But in terms of our faith journey, we are not an army of one, we are a body, a part of a larger whole. And so, becoming aware of our limitations and then scaling back to what we can actually handle sustainably or understanding that we need more help if we’re going to expand in certain ways, this is not only healthy, it’s wise. So, as we’re considering what is out in front of this, out in front of us for this year, including all of the resolutions we may have made. It’s important for us to be aware of what roots us and gives us an anchor but also what is balance. Balance that gives us room and space in our lives for plenty of exertion but plenty of recovery. This is not only how our bodies remain healthy and strong, this is how are soul, how are interior life, how our mental health, how our spiritual health is maintained. So, as we’re thinking of all the things, we want to accomplish this year, weighing out how that is going to happen, is vital. Otherwise, we’ll end up burning ourselves out and not getting any of it done.
Prayer:
So once again, Father, we thank You for Your word and we thank You for all of these examples that some of them really, really lead our hearts into important places of consideration and some of them are practical on how to actually live this life in this world. And we thank You for the counsel of the Scriptures and we thank You for the leading of Your Holy Spirit. And so, Holy Spirit, we ask that You come into this. What are we overextending ourselves in, what is just raw ambition without counting the cost? Where do You want us to focus our energy, we pray that You reveal these things to us as we consider them and as we walk with You throughout this day. And we pray this in the name of Jesus our Savior. Amen.
Announcements:
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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.
Prayer and Encouragements
Hi Daily Audio Bible Community, To Be a Blessing in California. Brian, I think you were talking either on the 27th or 28th of January about Jesus, I release this to You. A million times a day, a thousand times an hour right, and I just love that. That’s been such a blessing because it enables me and anyone else who will invite Jesus into those spaces to let Him take the lead, recognize that ‘yup, need help again, oh, made that mistake again, can’t believe that I’m back here again’, cause I need You Jesus and more than that, I want You to make my life transformed, rooted and ground in the love, the power, the victory of Jesus. I just, it’s astounding and I’ve used it multiple times, multiple times over the past few, few days. And I’m encouraging others to do the same. If you would also please just continue to pray for a family member who is in crisis. You know, I recognize that Jesus knows how to take care of them and as much as I want to do everything I can, I … I have no idea what I would do but Jesus does. I’m continuing to pray for each of you as I hear your names come up and to know that God is with you, He loves you, He’s got you, He’s not going to leave you alone, He will never abandon you. So, whenever the enemy tries to deceive you into believing that you’re not worth it, God could not, whatever the verbiage might be, let him know that God is victorious in your life. To Be a Blessing.
Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you are. Fam, my name is James coming to you out of the wonderful Eastern state of Maryland. And really, praise and a prayer request. Praise is that this past month, just being consistent in reading. It’s now the 31st of January, we finished a whole month. Not only here, in the Daily Audio Bible but I’m also going through a podcast, not a podcast but a reading plan in a Bible app. And I haven’t felt this much focus or determination in a very long time. In fact, last time I did, I was actually reading through and practicing the Bible itself. Now, I’m a little bit older, a little bit more mature, whatever that means. I found a great, great, great, stronger ability to practice with the presence of God. It’s been great, I hope you all have the same and I pray for me as I do for you all. You can get through and stay focused and know why to stay focused, as we practice what we’re reading each and every day. Spring is right around the corner. So, I hope to warm up with you all and we continue on through this together and God speed and God Bless.
Morning my DAB family. This is ___. I don’t usually ask for prayer for myself that much. I don’t pray for myself that much and I just ask that ya’ll pray for me. Me and my wife are kind of struggling a little bit with finances. My daughters husband lost his job right before Christmas and we ending up having to buy Christmas for our three grandkids, ages 6, 3 and 2. And having trouble with my truck, it’s acting up. And my health just isn’t good, I’m on oxygen full time. Still have bad back problems. Just kind of struggling right now and if you could, just pray for me and my family. I continue to pray for all ya’ll. I try to pray for everyone if I can, when, soon as I, after I hear the prayer requests. I just want you all to know that I love you and I appreciate having this app to listen to everyday. Getting something to look forward to every morning. Lot of mornings I get up early, real early, just to listen to, cause I’m excited to hear the next chapter, the next morning. So, I just appreciate all the prayers that I can get. I thank you and love you. Bye.
Hey, Daily Audio Bible family, good morning. I’m just thankful to be here on this journey with you guys. And it’s a blessing to be here. I’ve been reading from the 1st of January and now we’re in the last day of January. And I’m thankful to be here. I’ve been learning so much and I’m trying to keep my feet with the Lord and being more closer to Him. And this app actually has made me become closer with God. I’ve had so many ups and downs in life and I try not to…to…to put it in a way that it affects my relationship with God but either way I turned my life back to Him and I just want to thank you, thank you Lord for what You have done for me and have a blessed day my family.
Hey, DABers this is Jaws of Life from New Hampshire. I, it’s been well over a year since I last called, probably nobody remembers what I was dealing with but my wife wanted a divorce and I was praying for reconciliation. I live underground now because it’s over, she’s hellbent on following through and is not communicating with me, it’s a lawyer and she’s divorcing me. And it’s hell for a Christian. I feel like I don’t fit in anywhere. I go to church and see all the couples and families and her I am and it’s just really painful. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg you guys, the pain that I’ve been through. Just please pray for me. I’m really praying that the Holy Spirit will visit me in a mighty way, come inside me and help me to move towards the future and cope with this. I love you guys. I’m sorry I was gone for so long but I was ashamed. Bye.