Numbers 10:1-11:23, Mark 14:1-21, Psalms 51:1-19, Proverbs 10:31-32
Today is the 8th day of March welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today around the Global Campfire as we gather to take the next step forward. And I’m grateful that we get to take the next step forward each and every day. Our…our next step forward, the one we’re gonna take now, the step forward for today will lead us back into the book of Numbers and we will continue our journey with the children of Israel in the wilderness. Numbers chapter 10 verse 1 through 11 verse 23 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, in the gospel of Mark we have reached the portion of the narrative where we are encountering the last supper of Jesus, the betrayal of Jesus, the last days of Jesus. And I mentioned when we went through this in Matthew, we should always give reverence to what we’re reading. We get to encounter this story four times, once in each of the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - and then we move forward into the book of Acts and into the letters and we leave the narratives of the ministry of Jesus behind. And, so, when we encounter these stories, giving them the weightiness that they are due it’s important especially now that we’re in this season of Lent, a season of repentance, a season of reflection, a season of trying to slow things down enough to realize the impact of our lives and understand that sin, as we have allowed it to direct our lives has only ever let us to destruction, and that a Savior came to rescue us. That’s the story that we are moving into in the gospel of Mark. And, so, just again reminding us as we move through this in the coming days that…that…that we immerse ourselves and meditate upon the story of our salvation.
Then we turn backward into the book of Numbers and our reading began poignantly, and I quote, “the people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship.” Like that one sentence right there describes a generous portion of our lives, especially our spiritual lives. “The people began complaining openly before the Lord about hardship.” A couple verses later…later we get to hear what they were saying as they were complaining about hardship. “Who will feed us meat. We remember free fish we ate in Egypt along with the cucumbers, melons, leaks, onions and garlic, but now our appetite is gone. There’s nothing to look at but this manna.” So, what they’re saying is, ha, this journey into freedom has gotten difficult. “Do you guys remember how great it was when we were slaves when we could eat fish and cucumbers and melons and leaks and onion and garlic. Now all we have is this manna.” So, what they’re saying is slavery fed us better. God’s provision out here in the wilderness that is sustaining our very lives, we’re sick of this. This is too hard. This is too difficult. And then Moses hears all this, and he gets provoked by it, but he’s not like mad, specifically at the Israelites. He is also complaining before the Lord. “Why have you brought such trouble on your servant? Why are you angry with me and why do you burden me with all these people? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give birth to them so you could tell me to carry them at my breast like a nursing mother carries a baby to the land that you swore to give to their ancestors? Where am I supposed to get meat? How can I feed all these people? I can’t carry all of this by myself. They’re too much for me.” And then…and then the best. “If you’re going to treat me like this, please kill me right now if I have found favor with you and don’t let me see my misery anymore.” So, Moses is one of the greatest leaders in the Bible, absolutely revered above all in Judaism. Like Moses…this is who the law came through. This is Moses, the prophet that led them out of slavery in Egypt. This is a man who was the friend of God. And now they have all received instruction from God at the mountain. They have made preparation to do all of the things that God commanded them to do. They have built the tabernacle and made it portable, a place for God to dwell among them wherever they go right in the middle of the story wherever they go. He is providing for them daily all that they need, but it’s getting hard and challenging because now it’s not a concept. They have to live this. And in living this, they’ve had to go further into the desert to further understand the message of the wilderness that they are utterly dependent upon God. They are learning to trust. It as if God is saying I have a path through this wilderness into the land of promise. I have a way prepared for you. I will protect you every step of the way. I will take you. And when you face things that you don’t understand you have got to remember that I have got you. I understand. Like you’ve gotta stop trying to hijack the story and write something different. You’ve got to trust me. You’ve got to follow the path that I’ve made for you. If you’re going to deviate, it’s not going to work. You’ve got to learn this out here in the wilderness. And they’re not. They’re thinking about how good it was to be in slavery and bondage, and Moses is exasperated as a leader because he is carrying too much. He’s trying to own too much of this because he as a leader also has to learn the same lesson of utter dependence upon God. Even as I’m retelling the story that we just read in the book of Numbers it should become apparent that this is a mirror into our own stories through our own wilderness journeys. We get into places that we don’t understand or situations that feel constricting, we feel like we’re in the wilderness and it’s hard and very very easily we find ourselves thinking about better days, the days of bondage. Somehow, we look back and forget that we were being destroyed before our very eyes and we were rescued. And sometimes as leaders we can be leading and nobody’s listening and no matter what we do we can’t seem to keep anyone on the same page and it gets exasperating and we’re just simply trying to serve God by leading His people to Jesus. And, so, we see both in this example, today, the children of Israel and Moses facing their own set of difficulties in the wilderness. This is the mighty children of God, the chosen people. This is the mighty Moses, the prophet of the most-high God. And as it turns out they didn’t have anything that we don’t. In fact, we have much more than they did. We still find ourselves in the same places in our lives. And, so, let’s once again watch how everything plays out, allow it to be a mirror into our own souls, and realize that scriptures are certainly telling us the story of the children of Israel, but through the story they’re telling us how our own story. There is a way forward. That doesn’t mean we won’t have to endure the way forward, but we will accomplish the way forward if we will realize that we are utterly dependent upon God. We will begin to realize that we wrestle with this a lot because what we would prefer is that by our own power we would be able to arrange for the kind of life that we want and that God would empower us to do that when the invitation is to go on a grand adventure of life with God, trusting Him completely for all things in every conceivable way. Some things for us to give some thought to today.
Prayer:
Father, we invite you into that. We confess. We confess that when we feel self-sufficient and that we have power and control to arrange for things that we feel the most stable even though we still navigate ourselves and all kinds of trouble regardless…regardless of where the path is leading us until we realize that trusting you is the only way forward. We will continue to try to hijack things, write a different story than you are telling. May we relax. May we exhale. May we realize that we are safe, that you are with us and will never leave us. May we trust you instead of reflecting back upon the good old days of bondage that we used to have. May we trust you, because where we are going is into the promise. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Good morning it’s the 28th of February here in the UK and I just heard the prayer request from a gentleman who refers to himself as Joseph in the Pit. He was requesting peer for his marriage, in particular his wife due to childhood trauma has left __. they’ve been married for 25 years. And I call you Joseph at this time. Joseph I was so moved by your prayer request because it is almost identical to the situation that I have in my own life. I am very similar to your wife in that I had childhood trauma and that led to control in ways that were unhealthy in my marriage. I’ve been married for 26 years, and I just started counseling last week. And, so, my prayer for you is the same prayer that I pray for myself and my marriage. Father God, I pray for Your intervention. I pray for You to convict Joseph’s wife. Convict her of her fear and of her anxiety to want to control issues. I pray Lord that she finds the courage to make herself vulnerable in Your site so that she’s able to hand over…hand over those issues of control and fear to You Lord, lay them in Your hands so that You may be able to take hold of her and…and minister to her heart Lord for the healing that she needs. I pray for Your protection over Joseph and his wife’s marriage Lord. May You guard his heart also as they hand him over to You. I pray that You hold him dearly and closely to You and I pray this in Jesus’ name. I come against the enemies’ ploy to try to prevent them from having a healthy, strong marriage. And I pray this Lord trusting that You will speak to her and that she will lay herself vulnerably at Your feet and nail to the cross all her fears and anxieties and seek the help that they require in Jesus’ name Amen.
Hi everyone, this is Willow from Washington. I don’t have any prayer request today, but I just wanted to share some scripture that I read the other day that’s just been very encouraging to me. I actually made it my lock screen, home screen on my laptop so I could just be reminded of it every day. But…so it’s gonna be psalm 71 versus 19 through 22. Your righteousness O God reaches to the highest heavens. You’ve done such wonderful things. Who can compare with You O God. You’ve allowed me to suffer much hardship, but You restore me to life again and lift me up from the depths of the earth. You will restore me to even greater honor and comfort me once again then I will praise You with music on the harp because You are faithful to Your promises O God. I just wanted to share that scripture with you guys. I’m praying for all of you and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Hey DAB family this is Julian in Miami FL and I’m calling in to pray for Cynthia who requested prayer for her eyes and gave such a beautiful prayer for the whole DAB community. And I just want to pray over your eyes Cynthia and say, Lord Jesus we know that all things are possible through You, we know that all healing is possible through You, we know that miracles are possible through You. And in Your name Lord we pray for our sister Cynthia. We pray over her eyes Lord, and we pray that You may heal her fully 110%. Lord, we know that these things are possible through You when we call upon Your name Lord Jesus Christ. Love you, Cynthia. Take care. Bye-bye.
Hi neighbors it’s Lisa the Encourager. I am wanted Work in Progress to know…first of all I’m going to call you WIP because that’s easy…work in progress…easy for us to all remember, but I just wanted you to know that ever since you called in, I have been praying for your daughter. Every day I have her on my prayer list and I am praying that especially that considering she was a follower of Daily Audio Bible and she is part of this community I feel like we all should in unison just call out to God and pray that the angels on earth will just come to her aid and be able to help your daughter to be safe, be rescued, not only in her mind and soul and body but her heart and just be changed through the Holy Spirit. And I just want us to all please…just all pray together for WIPs daughter and pray this in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. God, please Lord God, please put people in her life Lord that will be able to give her safety, give her security Lord. Put people in her life that can help her God, any resources that can come her way God, that can protect her. And we just pray dear Lord, that she will hit her rock bottom, that her rock bottom is now God and now is the time that you are going to send your angels to protect her and guide her back to you and even back to this community God. I pray all of this in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Love you.
Hi this is Winnie. I’ve called once before a couple months ago, I guess. My nephew had called. He had lost his wife and he was left raising his three kids. Just an update. They’ve been evicted from their home and the two older kids are living with my niece and her sister. They sleep on the floor and the couch and then the baby is staying with my mother, my 80-year-old parents Monday through Friday. Friday. I pick the baby up and keep him through Sunday just to give my parents a break. I work full time, so they help out in that way, and I help them. But the father has pretty much abandoned these kids. He shows up to take the baby to daycare and that’s about it. We don’t see him again especially on the weekends we don’t hear from him. So, I just want to ask the DAB family to just pray for this situation because my parents, like I said, are in their 80s. They can’t do this and it’s becoming very taxing on everybody. The girls who don’t have their own bedrooms anymore are just pretty much in limbo. And, you know, I understand that he’s bereaved, but he has…he has children. And, so, I just ask for your prayers for that. And…and that’s pretty much all right now. I’m thankful for this DAB community and I pray for you all. Thank you.
Hey DAB family I’ve got a couple of prayers that I want to pray. It’s Alexis the psalmist on the prayer wall. First of all, I want to pray for my sister in Europe whose mom passed away after suffering from some longtime illness and her dad is struggling. Lord God I just lift up my sister. I pray father God that as You have given her the strength to continue to believe in You, to continue to trust in You when it’s just been a month since You lost her mom since her mom returned to be with You, I pray Father God that You give her and her family the strength to get through the season. Comfort her by Your precious Holy Spirit and give her grace and strength to move forward each and every day. Yes, there will be hard times, but Lord God I pray that through each and every hard time, each and every single wave of grief You are with her and with her dad and You draw them to You in Jesus’ name. I also pray for Kim in California who has been through quite a time with the floods and the storms. Lord God, it says in Your word in the book of Isaiah that we’ll go through the fire and we won’t be burned and we’ll go through the floods and we will not be overwhelmed. So, Lord God I just speak that word over her and her husband. I pray Father God that even through the health challenges that he is facing he won’t be overwhelmed. I pray that there will be a peace in their home, a peace that surpasses understanding, that surpasses their surroundings and just to keep them. And last of all I pray for Emma and Beloved on the Beach Lord God, the move that they have made. Lord God, I know that You direct the path of the righteous. So, Lord God I pray that You direct Emma specifically to good friends and good counsel in Jesus’ name. Amen.