Joshua 3:1-4:24, Luke 14:7-35, Psalms 80:1-19, Proverbs 12:27-28
Today is the 11th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I’m Brian and it’s great to be here with you today and every day as we gather once again around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together. Our next step leads us into relatively new territory. We finished the Torah, the first five books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - yesterday and then we began the book of Joshua, a new era taking shape. Moses has died and Joshua is now the leader of the children of Israel. And as we began the book of Joshua the preparations were getting underway to cross the Jordan River. And we’ve been working toward this. We were talking about this yesterday. We have been working towards this Jordan River and crossing it and getting into this promised land all the way back since the book of Genesis. Today we will cross the Jordan River. And, so, let’s dive in. We’re reading from the New Living Translation this week. Joshua chapters 3 and 4 today.
Commentary:
Okay. So, a pretty big day today in the Bible in the book of Joshua. Like we said when we started out a few minutes ago we’ve been working toward this Jordan River and the promised land for a long time now and the journey to get there through the wilderness. We learned a lot about the wilderness as we learned about the children of Israel and their wandering in the wilderness and applying that to our own lives. But we’ve been moving toward something and that is the promised land, and we’ve been moving toward this for a long time. And we’re there. And that’s pretty big. We’re there. We’re in the promised land with the children of Israel at this point. And, so, the Lord told Joshua that He would make him a great leader in the eyes of all the people and that they would know that God was with him just as He was with Moses. And then the Levites were instructed to carry the ark of the covenant into the Jordan River and when they did the water stopped up just like the Red Sea. It dried up so that people could cross over on dry ground. Now the Jordan River is very different than the Red Sea. The Jordan River is not that big of a river, but in high water season in the rainy season definitely it’s overflowing its banks and it’s big enough to…to…to need a way across, and God provided that way with…with dry land to cross. Can you just imagine this? I mean the dry ground part is his miraculous but can you just imagine walking across the Jordan River and setting foot for the first time in the land of promise. This thing has taken centuries to come to fruition and you are stepping foot into the promised land. It's…It’s a pretty dramatic scene. The promised land is no longer this mythic land. They’re standing in their land of promise. They can reach down and grab a handful of it. It’s tangible to them now. And then Joshua instructed different leaders, one from each tribe to go back into the dry riverbed that was the Jordan River and to each of them gather a large stone and carry that stone back into the camp. And then the people created a memorial with those stones, and a similar memorial was placed in the dry riverbed of the Jordan River before the waters covered it once again. And I quote from Joshua at this point. “In the future your children will ask, what did these stones mean? Then you can tell them this is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and He kept it dry until you were all across just as He did at the Red Sea when He dried it up until we had all crossed over. He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.” In other words, the memorial stones were placed as a memorial so they would not forget, so that they would remember. And this is a good time to talk about remembering. Something…something that makes us human is our ability to remember. And as we’ve moved through the Bible we’ve seen that remembering is a very very important thing. Both Old and New Testament. Like if we’re in the New Testament and we’re with Jesus and we’re at the Last Supper and He’s passing the cup and breaking the bread what does he tell them to do? Remember. In some cases, in Scripture the people are told to write things above their door posts, and they’re told to remind each other, to have it on their lips and on their tongues and in their conversation, to remind each other where they came from, talking about it, remembering. Even the fact that the Bible exists shows us God’s intention about us remembering because the Bible leads us to remember every day who God is, who we are, where this is all going. And, so, as we see these memorial stones set up at this spot where they cross the Jordan River into the promised land it was so they would remember it in the future and tell future generations what God had done. And people would need to be able to have this memorial. They would need to remember what happened there because we’ll see that they have every opportunity to forget. And they do as we do. And, so, let’s think about it. Let’s take a step back together from this and just imagine our lives for a second, looking back kind of remembering. What were those moments where the memorial stones are? Where do they sit in your life? What would memorial stones even look like in our lives? Maybe…maybe writing it down is a memorial. One of the things we’ve said over the years here is, if God speaks through His word to you, if God speaks, take notes. When we write things down or journal things down, we are memorializing those things. And when we have these memorials or these pages in our lives, these moments that take us back to a place where God was there, and He rescued us and He led us forward. We need to not forget these things because we’re moving at warp speed, and we can hardly keep track of what we gotta get done today. And, so, it’s so easy to be moving…moving through life and all the sudden we didn’t see this fog was drifting in and all the sudden we’re in this gray mist and we don’t know what’s going on anymore and we feel lost and disoriented. If we can return to these places where the memorial stones are set up in our lives, return even to the pages of our journals to remind ourselves who God is, who we are, and that this is going somewhere, we’re going somewhere together, it can be a game changer. And as we write these things down over years, we’re writing down the story, our story with God that can be revealed to future generations of our families, that can be preserved and kept and maybe cracked open a century and a half from now telling the story of God’s faithfulness in our lives. When we retell ourselves the story. we are reminding ourselves of who we are, chosen children of the most-high God. And, so, something for us to consider.
Some of us are journalers and some of us are not, but remembering, however we do that is important to our own stories. And, so, journaling…obviously everybody knows what we’re talking about here. You can grab a pen and a piece of paper and write some things down or type them up or whatever. Over the years we’ve crafted even resources for this. We have the Daily Audio Bible journal that is available in the Daily Audio Bible shop and that was developed for this, exactly this. That’s something that’s tangible that we can kinda carry around with us that can fit in a backpack and fit in a bag that we can kinda just have available so that we write it down and don’t forget. I myself have told the story over the years, it was the year my mom died, I found these pencils and I fell in love with them and I reacquainted myself with writing in my own hand, and I just found sharpening a pencil, just the whole tactile thing, sharpening the pencil having a good pencil to write with and writing things down has just become part of a rhythm. And, so, those resources, those pencils, the journal, everything are in the Daily Audio Bible Shop but there’s no magic in the Daily Audio Bible Shop. The Daily Audio Bible journal isn’t going to write something or have something written on it that’s gonna all the sudden become magic. It’s just a resource. We developed this resource because this is so important, so important. Man if you journal your way through the year this year, the things that are happening in your life, the things that the Bible is speaking to you and you reach the end of the year and maybe that…that week between Christmas and New Year’s, that kind of weird week of the year where everything is being reset to take a moment and just go back through your journal over the year, remembering, remembering God’s faithfulness, remembering the challenges you that you faced and the joys that you experienced. Remembering is throughout the Bible and we witnessed this today so that we won’t forge.
Prayer:
Father, we invite You into that, into our remembering, into us being able to see tangibly the story of Your faithfulness in our lives and the way that You have protected us, the ways that You have guided and directed us. Lead us to the ways that will work in our story, that we might have memorial stones in our lives at the junctures that we need to remember. Come Holy Spirit into this we pray in the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.
Community Prayer and Praise:
Hey DAB family this is your sister Ashley from California, and I called in a few weeks ago just letting…updating you guys letting you know that I was struggling. And I’ve been digging in and asking God to reveal to me and just to help me through the season that I’m in with my son being sick and just trying to walk through this…the compounded grief that I’m going through. And He spoke to me, and He told me, hope. Because God is my helper and will never leave me or forsake me. I’m going to get through this so help me God. The miracle is that He continues to sustain me. And as we humbly seek Him and cry out to Him, we become more aware of His presence. And not only will we make it through, but God will help us grow through this. So DAB family I…like I need to preach myself I'm…I’m trying…I’m just trying to pass this on to you guys. So, if you’re walking through a season of grief and healing and all the…all the survival mode kind of thing I want to encourage you, hold on. Press into the lord, be honest and just lift your hands up and say lord Your kingdom come Your will be done. And I want to encourage you, the only way through is…the only way through to grow closer to the lord is to not be grateful for the situation but be grateful in it and to praise Him and to rejoice and to say hallelujah. OK. I don’t know if that makes any sense to you family but I love you and I am praying alongside with you guys and thank you for lifting us up and your prayers. Bye.
This is little Penguin from South Africa. I want to thank Brian and his family for bringing me back to Jesus. I would like prayers for three things. Number one my country South Africa. Things are very dire here. It’s going backwards. A lot of people are fleeing our country that are qualified to do the jobs. The second thing I want to ask is to pray for…is prayer for my boyfriend. He’s got a lot of emotional issues. He was abused by his father and friends in __ where he lived with his father and his father’s blaming him for everything. And then the relationship between me and my boyfriend. I'm…I’m divorced with two children and his fathers against our relationship because of things he did wrong. He also had a relationship with a woman with two children and he’s thinking that I’m just of these of his after his son’s money. So, please pray for me. Thank you Brian and your family for bringing the Bible and Jesus back into my life.
Hi, I’m calling anonymously today out of respect for the person I’m asking a prayer for. So, just yesterday a colleague of mine messaged me to say that he was sorry he had not shown up to a meeting. He had gotten news from his doctor that his life expectancy was going to be short. And that was really all the news that I got. He asked me not to say anything because he hasn’t informed his family yet. And I just want to ask you to pray please. I know for a fact that God has the ability to heal this man. I just don’t know if it’s His will. And, so, I just want to ask you that you would pray with me that if God would extend this man’s life and allow his…his family to watch him grow old. Lord he’s got children, he's…he’s got a wife, he’s got siblings, he’s got a mother, there’s so many people friends that love him and want to see him live if God would just allow it. Would you pray for that? Thank you. I appreciate this community. I love you so much and I pray for you guys daily. Bye-bye.
Hello DAB siblings this is God’s chosen again from Georgia. I just want to say prayer over all DAB members. Abba father you are the creator of all things so we thank you throughout this first quarter of the year and as we continue in the second quarter of the year, Lord God we pray that your mighty hand will continue to lead and guide us. Thank you Lord for leading us as we continue to wait on you. Help us Lord to continue to walk in victory. Grant us healing, restoration, reconciliation and redemption through your grace and your mercy. Grant us your shalom peace. Give us favor and renewed strength to be able face each new day. When we are distracted or when our minds wander, help us Lord to channel our gaze and focus back to Jesus Christ who is our Lord and our Savior. We thank you for the beauty of the earth. We thank you for all that you did for us throughout this Holy Week. Make each one of us humble vessels as we continue to wait and trust you. We thank you Lord for your love and your grace that carries us through each single day. And as we look forward to the resurrected Christ on Sunday as we celebrate the risen savior, heavenly father Lord I pray that all of us would be renewed in our strength, all of us would be met at our various point of need, all of us would sing a new song. Thank you, most gracious God, because we know that our savior Jesus Christ will rise again, and we all shall celebrate with him in glory. Amen.