Exodus 13:17-15:18, Matthew 21:23-46, Psalm 26:1-12, Proverbs 6:16-19
Today is the first day of February, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I am Brian and it is awesome to be here with you today, as we greet this new month on day 32 of our brand-new sparkly, shiny year. We have made it. We have navigated through a month together, well done. We can do this, like that’s the thing, we’ve made it through a month and look at all that has happened in the Scriptures in a month. Look at all the different things we’ve been able to talk about, all of the different things we’ve been able to consider in our own lives through the Scriptures in a month. And we’re just gonna keep going, we get 11 more of these in front of us and that’s exciting. We can gather together each and every day around the Global Campfire and take another step forward. So, here we are, brand-new month. Hang out until the end if you can, I have this brand-new resource that I want to announce at the end today, in commemoration of this brand-new month. But for now, let’s dive in, take the next step forward and step into this month together by picking up where we left off, which leads us back into the book of Exodus. The children of Israel have just been delivered from Egypt and they have navigated their way out of Egypt, moved into and toward the wilderness. And as the Bible told us 600,000 men so, and their dependents, their households. So, a moving city, a huge amount of people, moving out into the wilderness, and this is where we pick up the story. Exodus chapter 13 verse 17 through 15 verse 18.
Commentary:
Okay so, as we begin this brand-new month, we have some pretty monumental things taking place in both Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament, the children of Israel have made their way to the Red Sea, and they’ve camped along the banks. And so, there are mountains before them and the sea behind them, or vice versa, depending on which way they’re standing. They’re kind of hemmed in by mountains and…and sea. And I was thinking about this because man, we will be leaving for the land of the Bible in just a few days, on Sunday, and making our way over and since, like next we’ll actually be standing by the Red Sea and seeing the mountains and things in, and the banks of the shore, kind of seeing this visually and being able to kind of visit this visually. The children of Israel are camped by the sea and the mountains are hemming them in and then all of a sudden, they hear the rumblings of something coming and, in the distance, they can see the dust flying and then they can realize what is coming and it’s the Egyptian army coming against them. They are hemmed in by the ocean and by the mountains, kind of sitting ducks. And here comes the enemy down upon them and they’re terrified. And if we look into our lives, we can find times that we’ve had that sensation, maybe not literally standing by an ocean, hemmed in by a mountain and some marauding warriors are coming down against us. But in our lives where it feels like we’re hemmed in, there’s nowhere to go and an enemy is descending upon us and there’s no way out and we do not have the resources we need to defend ourselves, and it looks pretty clearly like we’re going to get destroyed. That’s the position that the children of Israel are in, as they enter the wilderness. And Moses says to the people, and we should all hear this, we should all hear this and take this to heart and apply this and look back at the times that we’ve been hemmed in, or that we feel that way, and remember Moses’s words. Do not fear, stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord that He will provide for you today. For the Egyptians that you see today you will never ever see again, the Lord will fight for you, you can be still.
Then we turn over into the book of Matthew, Jesus is in Jerusalem. So, as we’re in the Old Testament in the book of Exodus, like there’s no Jerusalem, yet there is no nation of Israel. There is no king, there is no kingdom. There’s just people moving through the Red Sea and being delivered by God, as God destroys their enemies, but when we go into Matthew we’re moving well forward in the story. And so, Jerusalem is the established Holy City, the city of God, the place where God dwells and meets and speaks with man. And so, there is a whole order of clergy, there is a whole order of ministry, the Levitical ministry. There’s a whole group of priests and scholars and rabbis and people who wrestle and debate about what God wants, and they lead the people spiritually. Jesus is in Jerusalem. He won’t get out alive. And we see some of his provocation today. Some of the things that had them plotting to get Him killed. But when we look deeper, we realize some of the same things are still going on. So, Jesus is in the temple courts, a very commonplace for Rabbi to be teaching while in Jerusalem. The chief priests and the elders of the people came to Jesus as He’s teaching and interrupted and said, who told you, You could do this stuff? Right, by what authority are You doing these things? Who gave You this authority? So, there’s the shot across the bow. There is the challenge. Who do You think You are? Did You get a permit from us to go around healing people? Like, who told You, You could do this stuff? And Jesus knows exactly what’s going on here. And as Jesus is prone to do, He asks a question, and the question reveals the motive behind what’s really going on. And so, He says, I’ll ask you. And He asks them about John the Baptist, who, who gave him his authority? Did his baptism come from heaven or was it invented by mankind, because their answer to that question is the same answer by which Jesus got His authority. So, if they say John was clearly from God and that is where he got his authority, then Jesus can say I’m working in the same direction. My authority comes from God. But Jesus then asks them the question that reveals what’s really going on and they can’t answer that. If they say John was sent from heaven, then Jesus will say, then why were you not on board? Why were you fighting against God? And why are you asking me was authority I’m doing what I’m doing under? But if they say he was from man, then people believe that John was a prophet and their hearts of turn toward God. And so, so they’re gonna be in trouble with the people. And so, they can only say that they don’t know. And so, Jesus is like fine, I’m not playing this game with you. And He goes on to tell two parables. A man had two sons and if we remember as we’ve gone through these parables, so often they start with a man did this or a man went out to do this, and this so often represents God and that’s the case here. Man had two sons. He went to the first son, go work in the vineyard the boy answered, I’m not gonna, I won’t, I will not. But then later he changes his mind. He has a change of heart, that is repentance. Later, he repented. So, the father goes to the first son and says come work in the vineyard, come work toward the harvest, come, the vineyard being the kingdom here, come, work doing the work that we do together. And the boy answered, I will not but then later repented and obeyed. The father went to the other son and said the same thing and the boy said sure, I’ll obey you. And then didn’t. Which of the two did his father’s will is the question Jesus asked. And they said the first, the one who said no but then repented and obeyed. So, they could answer correctly but they couldn’t be self-reflective enough to know that they were doing the latter, they were saying we will obey the Lord, but they don’t. And so, then Jesus says, I’m telling you the truth, tax collectors and prostitutes will go ahead of you into the kingdom of God. That’s provocative. Like, that was the scum, right. Like, that was the marginalized, that was the people that jokes were made up about and slanderous things were said, and these are the people pushed to the margins and dehumanized so that they’re a group of people that can be hated, as opposed to actual human beings, with beating hearts and feelings. Tax collectors and prostitutes, we could expand that any marginalized, persecuted people. They believed and according to Jesus would enter the kingdom before the pious, religious, educated leaders because those people were saying the right things but not obeying at all. Then He tells another parable. A landowner planted a vineyard again, landowner, God, vineyard, kingdom. He put a fence around it, dug it, like made it nice. Built a watchtower, leased it to tenant farmers. These tenant farmers then in this, in this story are the religious leaders. So, he put it in their care and went on a journey and was expecting to reap a harvest. And when harvest time came, he sent servants to collect his portion of the crop and the tenants beat the ones that were sent. Beat one, killed another, stoned another. These are the prophetic voices that God had sent to speak on His behalf, and they were beaten and killed and thrown out. And then He sent other servants, more prophetic voices, more than the first and they treated in the same way. Finally, He sent His son, right, the Son of Man, Jesus here. Finally, He sent His son, saying they’ll respect my son. I’m gonna send my son down to my people, the people of covenant, to the religious leaders to turn their hearts so that they can turn the people’s hearts toward God. I’m gonna go. They have not respected generationally, the prophetic voices that I have sent, I will send my own Son, He will go. Surely, they will respect Him. But when the tenants saw the Son, they said to themselves, this is the heir, let’s kill him and get his inheritance. In other words, let’s take what does not belong to us and let’s take it over. And what Jesus is talking about, is God’s kingdom. And so, it’s a very provocative that what he is saying to them is, God has come to you so many times, in so many ways and He is here before you write now and your giving lip service, you’re saying the right things but it’s not true and you are leading people into deception. You are the blind leading the blind. And Jesus is revealing just how blind they were. Because this is not getting through to them. Their response to this is to make plans to kill Jesus. And so, Jesus says, as we closed our reading today, for this reason I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. And I’m quoting from the gospel of Matthew. “When the chief priests,” right, “the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they realized that He was speaking about them.” They did not, they did not repent. Like, they did not open their eyes to see, instead and I quote from the gospel of Matthew, “they wanted to arrest Him, but they were afraid of the crowds because the crowds regarded Him as a prophet.” And so, we see that Jesus is in a pretty sticky, prickly situation. We probably all know how this story goes, so we know that Jesus ends up on a cross, from this point. So, the people that He is calling out and calling up aren’t listening, and they’re going to do away with Him exactly as His parables are describing. It’s kind of prickly because anyone who has any sort of spiritual authority needs to be paying really close attention to what’s going on here. Because what’s going on here is that people who are devoted to God and the ways of God and are teaching and leading people in the ways of God, have gotten things so twisted and upside down over time and through tradition and because of the situation that they find themselves in trying to protect themselves as a people under Roman authority, that they are completely blinded to what God is actually doing. I mean, we’re going to be witnessing a story here that is so twisted that the people of God kill God who has come to rescue them, because they believe it has to happen a certain way, because they’re expecting a certain thing, because they’re expecting a Messiah, a military figure, somebody who can lead them into war against their enemies. They missed the fact that their rescuer came for them, and they did away with Him. We have to be sensitive about our labeling system, the way that we label people groups, marginalized people and dehumanize them into ways that…that make them easy to be against. When Jesus came to rescue them and anyone who believes. Like, man, it’s so provocative. Jesus is telling these people that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom before you and the kingdom will be taken away from you. That’s provocative stuff, that still has application. And so, may we examine ourselves, especially those of us who are leaders, may we examine ourselves and be convicted as these parables are supposed to do. Like, this is what’s supposed to happen, is that we are shaken, and we consider and we wrestle, so that we can expose what’s really going on in our motives, so that what is broken can be put back together, so that what is within us is the same as what we are presenting, so that we are true.
Prayer:
And so, Holy Spirit, we invite You into that. Some days You come to us with such comfort and just such words that we need to lift us up and then some days You come to us with things that we really need to consider, because You are calling us up and forward and we need to mature, we need to grow up, we need to be capable sons and daughters of Your kingdom, fully loyal, fully committed, fully surrendered. Come, Jesus, we pray, in your mighty name we ask. Amen.
Announcements:
Okay, so I mentioned at the beginning we had a new resource to announce today, on this first day of the second month of the year. And we do. We’ve been shopping around for a while looking for much, much better hats than we’ve had in the past, for Daily Audio Bible. And we’ve had them over the years, but we’ve been just searching for quality things that will last, things that will look good and can continue to be used, five, ten years from now. So, Christian went on a search and found us what we were looking for. So, in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, we now have brand-new snapback hats, like the ballcap style of hats, as well as Daily Audio Bible beanies, as we’re moving through the wintertime and like to put those on our heads and keep our ears warm in the winter. So, what he found was a leatherworking company, that works with Horween leather that gets sourced in from Illinois and then it’s fashioned in Wyoming and everything is made in the United States. And so, these leather discs are then hand stamped with our logo and affixed, the leather is affixed to the cap, and it looks great. It looks super classy. So, the ballcap, there’s the round logo on the front, with the beanie it’s a little patch right on the very, very edge, with the Daily Audio Bible logo stamped into the leather and then applied to the garment and then sent to us from our friends at Range Leather in Wyoming, to you, all over the world. So, we have selected to ballcaps and two beanies, all-black and gray and white. And you can see them in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. Just go into the lifestyle section and you’ll find them, they’re brand-new. By far the best hat that we’ve had, we have them in limited quantities right now, just to kind of try them. Although, I’m pretty excited about them, they look great. They are now available in the Daily Audio Bible Shop, while the supplies last. And so, jump over to the shop, jump over in the Lifestyle Section and get yourself a little, little, tiny piece of, of the story, the ongoing story of the Daily Audio Bible, step-by-step, day-by-day. But our brand-new snapback hats and beanies are available right now. So, check that out.
If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, humbly, thank you, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t a community, if we didn’t show up around the Global Campfire every day, if we weren’t in this together, we wouldn’t be here at all. And so, thank you, humbly for your partnership. There is a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you’re using the app, you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner, or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.
And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement, you can hit the Hotline button in the app, that’s little red button up at the top, 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.
Prayer and Encouragements:
Good morning DABers, this is Jerry from Wyoming. It’s 5 o'clock in the morning on a Saturday morning. It’s the 27th or the 28th, I’m not sure. But I just wake up and wanna run to listen to my DABers and listen to what the Bible has to say for today. Just praise God for that. I’m in the midst of major snowstorm and I’ve got these two cats and a dog who just cuddle up next to me when I’m ready to listen to Daily Audio Bible. And I just wanted to praise God for all of you out there and pray for all of you out there, all your needs and wants and desires. And I ask blessings and healing and comfort to all of you out there. I ask that the Lord just shines upon us all. And my heart is so warm to be able to, even though I’m here by myself with my two dogs, or, with my two cats and one dog. And sitting here with my cup of coffee and kind of my loneliness but it’s okay. I’ve got you all out there and it makes me happy. And I thank God for ya’ll. And I pray for you all and I’m thankful for you all. And that I have this place to go and sit here in my comfort. Though it’s crazy snowy. I love it, I love it, the comfort of it all. Love you guys.
Hello, my wonderful DAB family. This is Rosie, aka Great to be Free in Jesus. I’m calling in with a prayer request for my granddaughter Anisa. I’ve told you about her before. She was married and as soon as she had their first child her husband decided that he didn’t no longer wanted to be in the relationship with her. So, he left and then he came back and they reconciled and now she’s got a daughter. Damari is 2 and a half and he’s been diagnosed with Autism. And Malani is a year and a half and she’s doing well. My granddaughter is doing all this by herself and she’s really exhausted and I want to help her but I’m not physically able to and it just breaks my heart that I can’t help her. Please pray for her that God will send her the help that she needs and that God would heal Damari of this Autism. And I love you my wonderful DAB family. God Bless you.
Lonely DABers, this is God’s Chosen from Georgia. And I just want to say a short prayer over all of us. Dear Jesus, we come before You this morning to thank You for the work You are doing in each of our lives. We’re grateful for every new opportunity that this day bring our way. We thank You for Your grace that is so amazing. As we grow stronger, may our faith in You continue to grow deeper, so that we will continue to remain thankful. We know that the plans You have for our lives will slowly unfold with each new day. We’ll be patient as change comes because we know that You are in absolute control. Help us Lord, to help others today. We pray for all those who are hurt in our community. We pray, Lord Jesus, that as You continue to lead in their mystery You will continue to help and strengthen them. We pray for those who’s lives have been impacted by the disastrous addiction. We pray, Lord Jesus, for all the families that are torn apart, especially for the children left behind to wonder and grieve. God, we pray that You will give them peace and You will guide them gently through the next hour. We pray, Lord Jesus, and thank You for giving us roof over our head and giving us a bed that we can sleep in. For putting shoes on our feet. Forgive us when we ever start to complain and forget about all the great blessings that You have given to us. We pray for all those that are sick in our community, all with diagnoses, different situations, life changing situations. We pray for your peace and invite You, Jesus, to come and be our comforter. Thank You for all You do, we love You and we appreciate You. We pray this prayer in Jesus name. Amen.
This is Laquita from Vinita. I just wanted to say thank you Brian for what you were talking about on January the 27th about how Moses didn’t want to go to Egypt because he knew it was gonna be a hard task. And my mom died of COVID last year and I’m having to take care of my dad which is 89-years-old. And he has a lot of problems and I don’t complain but everyday I think, uhhggg, I’ve gotta go over there and take care of him and it’s gonna take all my day. I could be doing all these wonderful, great things for the world. And whine, whine, whine and why me. And I realized today that when we look at ministry, sometimes we look at ministry in the church, helping the people on the street, ministering to the hungry and doing all those things. And in taking care of my dad, that’s what I’m doing. I’m ministering to someone who is alone, who needs meals, taking care of him, who needs companionship. And I just want to repent of my hardness that I have. And thank the Lord that I have a dad that I can touch and minister to. Thank you Brian, I needed so badly to hear that.
This is Stephanie from North Carolina. I was originally from Maryland and I went on the pilgrimage with Brian some years ago. And I’d like to pray for each of you on the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, will abide under the shadow of the Almighty. May He cover you and your household under the shadow of His wings. May your flights to Israel and back home, will be smooth and safe, including all your luggage will arrive. May your bodies adjust well to the time zone difference. As you walk where Jesus brought the Gospel, I pray you will have a deep revelation and understanding of the love of the most High God. May the Lord, Most High, be with you at every stop. I pray for strength and wisdom for Brian and his team. Empower them with discernment. In Jesus name. Have a marvelous pilgrimage to the Holy Land.