Exodus 15:19-17:7, Matthew 22:1-33, Psalms 27:1-6, Proverbs 6:20-26
Today is the 2nd day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian and it is great to be here with you today as we get ourselves acclimated to our brand-new month and get ourselves moved in. And moving forward leads us right to where we left off. The children of Israel have walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptian armies were not so fortunate. And the children of Israel now on the other side of the Red Sea have been singing songs of worship. That’s where we pick up the story with the end of what they are singing. Exodus chapter 15 verse 19 through 17 verse 17 today.
Commentary:
Alright. So, in the book of Exodus now the children of Israel have crossed the Red Sea and the Egyptians are dealt with and so now they have to deal with the wilderness. And they are not being led the short way toward the promised land. They are being led into the open wilderness. Let’s just let that sink in. They are not being led the short route. It’s not a route that will be good for them. They are not prepared for it. They are being led into the wilderness. As we watch this story begin to unfold before us, we will notice that the wilderness is the backdrop for the story. This is where they are. And we need to understand that it’s not only this historical retelling of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness, but it’s also the backdrop to investigate our own wilderness seasons of life. And we do everything that we can to avoid the wilderness, except embrace it usually, like go through it. But what we’re going to find in the story of the children of Israel is that the wilderness completely transforms their identity. It’s not they don’t have all kinds of struggles and that they didn’t always have all kinds of struggles, but a very important thing has to happen and the wilderness is the place that it happens. And that is that this people who had a promise over them who have flourished have gone centuries in slavery, 430 years. So, they were in slavery for centuries. And, so, no one alive knew anything else but slavery. This was their lot in life. This was their identity. God coming and rescuing them and bringing them into the wilderness is to transform, in part, that identity of slavery and replace it with that of chosen, selected by God for a purpose and a mission, which is to reveal Him to all nations. And, so, there are some practical things that have to be learned in that transformation. While they were in slavery, they were working all the time, certainly, but provisions were being provided. And, so, we see that one of the first lessons that they learn in the wilderness is that there’s no water, there is no food, what do we do? And they begin to grumble. And we even hear them kind of murmuring, wow, you guys, you remember when we could sit around the pots of food when we were slaves in Egypt. It was so awesome to be a slave back then. And, so, they’re…they’re looking back at who they were and longing for the ease of being a slave because it’s hard to be on your own in the wilderness when you don’t know where the provision is going to be coming from. And we watch God teach them these first wilderness lessons. I will supply your needs. I will take care of you, but you are in a place where only I can provide so You will know it is Me that is sustaining you. If we’re going to do this covenant people thing, then your job is to reveal Me, and you will have to do that by actively and openly and utterly trusting in Me and where I lead and direct you. And, so, this is like one of the first things that they learn as they go into the open wilderness, is that they are utterly dependent upon God, and we watch them bucking against that. And we realize, O my goodness, this is my story too. I do the same things. I need to learn the same lessons. And, so, may we embrace all of the wilderness journey that we are going into with Moses and the children of Israel but may we begin to open our hearts to the fact that this story is reading back to us our own story in so many ways and there’s so much for us. And, so, let’s learn these lessons of the wilderness. Nobody likes to be in the wilderness but everybody faces it. And, so, what we do with it? Do we do everything we can to get out of it or do we embrace the fact that it is shaping us and is necessary because some of the things that we have put our trust in need to be shaken loose and in the wilderness, there is no way to survive. I’ve been in that wilderness. We will be in that wilderness in mere days, and you cannot survive out there, not with that many people. And, so, may we learn what’s going on here, that our first wilderness lesson is to understand that our source is God, and we are utterly dependent upon Him, whether we realize it or not. But realizing it sets us free. It frees us up to know like I don’t have to take care…I am on a mission and God is my source.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that. We…we all can relate to this. We have all faced challenging hardship and suffering in some way or another. We’ve all gone through what we would call the wilderness and some of us are in the middle of it right now and some of us are heading into it and some of us are heading out of it but it’s all part of our story and there are profound lessons that we discover when we’re walking through the seasons. So, help us as we walk through our own seasons to walk through this with the children of Israel and see what You are doing and how they are responding and how so much, we find ourselves kind of in the same place. Wasn’t it awesome when we were in slavery? We could have all these things. When You are leading us forward and inviting us to grow up and move into something new, something more expansive, something deeper that draws us deeper into relationship with You and into the story that You are telling through us. Come Holy Spirit we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
dailyaudioboble.com is home base, it is the website, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here. And, so, certainly check it out.
I mentioned yesterday about a brand-new resource in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, the brand-new daily Bible snapback hats with Horween leather patches on the fronts as well as the Daily Audio Bible beanies that also have the leather patch on them as well. And, so, we have a couple colors. We have a gray and white option I love very much. I didn’t expect to but I love it very much and then the all-black option and then gray beanies and black beanies. While supplies last. you can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. We’ve been looking for a much better addition to our…to our hats than what we’ve had over the years, and these are our favorites. And, so, we’re looking forward to those being out in the world. And you can find them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop in the lifestyle section. So, check that out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, if this mission to bring the spoken word of God read fresh every day and offered freely to anyone who will listen anywhere on this planet any time of day or night and to build community around that rhythm just showing up here every day around the Global Campfire, if that’s life-giving to you then thank you for your partnership. There’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you are 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 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:
Hey DAB fam this is Beloved in Texas and I just want to pray for the mom…I cannot remember what you called yourself…but the mom who called in about anger and yelling at her kids. Girl if there’s a mom out there who hasn’t been there, I’d like to meet her. I understand completely and it is extremely frustrating when you’re trying to…I kind of equate it to like having a handful of helium balloons and each one is a responsibility, and it feels like you are just constantly losing one and running after it and grabbing it and once you’ve got that one another ones floated off out of reach. And I understand. All that to say, I understand. So, Father we just lift up this woman and we also lift up all the other moms who are dealing with this Lord and we just ask that you just bring supernatural peace to our hearts. Help us to have patience with our kids, Father. Give us…allow us to discipline and wisdom and love and not out of anger and frustration. Father, I thank you that you…that Your Holy Spirit can whisper in our ear the steps that we need to take when we feel like we are just overwhelmed, or we’re frustrated by all of the things that have happened in the day. Thank you, Jesus for your Holy Spirit, to lead us and comfort us and guide us in Jesus’ name.
This is Living by Grace, and I just heard some prayer request on January 24th’s podcast. And just two women who…O…the brokenness that they’ve had in their life and what they are experiencing just broke my heart. And I’m praying with both of you. One was a lady who had an eye injury and found the DAB because she wanted to read her Bible but can’t right now and lost her son to an overdose and she’s now lost all of her children and I can’t even imagine the pain that comes with that. And, so, God I just pray You lift her up Lord that You’d bring healing to her body as she has heart issues and this eye issue Lord and that through these struggles and this deep pain that she has Lord that You would hold her up and draw her near to You. And I pray for her as she has had a burden on her heart to minister to others who are grieving Lord and that You would bind up her broken heart and that she can offer comfort to others. And then there was another lady who called in and I don’t remember her name, but she is just broken and bitter and compared to herself to Naomi who came back and said call me Mara because I’m no longer happy and blessed I’m bitter. And I just pray Lord the enemy is fighting against her and her soul and I pray in the name of Jesus Lord that You would break through that bitterness that hardness that hatred in her heart and that You would make her new Lord that You restore joy to her soul and her heart. God You could do that. Only You could do that, and I pray that that would be so. I thank You that she’s found the DAB Lord. I thank You that she called in and that she asked for prayer Lord. That shows that her heart is still for You. She wants to grow in You, she wants to have this bitterness taken away. And God I pray You’d do that. I pray in the name of Jesus. I plead Your blood over both of these women.
Good morning, DABbers it is Monday January 30th I am in Southwest Florida so the weather’s gorgeous right now. It’s perfect this time of year. I hope this day finds you all well. I am calling in to ask for prayer for my daughter Sarah. Sarah is someone who does believe that God exists, but she doesn’t really have a relationship with Him. She doesn’t really know Jesus and really doesn’t like the fact that I’m a born again Christian, so we’ve been sort of estranged from one another for lack of a better word since 2009 when I embraced Jesus. I just need some prayer for her. My daughter is 34, lives alone, works from home, has become quite isolated and depressed and anxious and suffering panic attacks. And all of a sudden realizing how lonely she is and just a whole laundry list of things that every mother dreads to hear. I kind of knew this would happen eventually. I just wasn’t expecting it. I guess we never really are, but I went and spent five days with her while she had her nervous breakdown I guess for lack of a better explanation. I don’t know what else to call it. Not sleeping, not eating, racing thoughts, nausea, gagging, puking dry heaving, you name it. All of those things associated with high anxiety. So, please just pray for Sarah. Please pray that she can begin to heal now that we spent five days together purging and crying and talking and laughing and joking and cleaning and organizing. Please just pray for Sarah. Thank you all so much. I love this community. Blessings on this Monday.
Good morning Daily Audio Bible DABbers my name is Comfort and I’m calling from the United Kingdom today is the 30th of January and I just so happened to __. I’m just calling to say a big thank you to…this podcast has really helped me over the years since I’ve been a listener and I’m just so grateful for all of the prayers that I hear. You know, I pray along as well and I’m just so thankful for the word itself and how Brian, how you really digest the word, and you break it down into a way that is easy to understand. I just want you guys to just continue to pray that God would excel and grow this ministry even further. And if you would like to pray for me as well, please do. Thank you so much. Take care everyone. Have a lovely, lovely day. Bye.
Hi Daily Audio Bible family this is Olivia from Michigan. This is my 4th year listening and my first time ever calling in. I’m just calling today to ask for prayers for my dad. He’s been in horrible pain for so many years now and been to so many doctors and nobody can figure out what’s wrong with him and it’s just really hard to watch him in so much pain. I…I really believe that the only person that can heal him is God. So, I just wanted to call and ask for prayers. Please keep him in your thoughts and just hope he gets better. Thanks.