Joshua 19:1-20:9, Luke 19:28-48, Psalms 88:1-18, Proverbs 13:12-14
Today is the 19th day of April welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is great to be here with you today as we gather yet again around the Global Campfire and take the next step forward together, which leads us back to where we left off, which leads us back into the book of Joshua. And we are at the point of…in Joshua where the different allotments of territory to the different tribes are being assigned. And, so, that’s where we will continue until we get through that portion of Joshua. Today, Joshua chapters 19 and 20.
Commentary:
Okay. Let’s talk about God in tears, God crying today. And let’s go into the book of Luke, because we see this…this tear filled seen in the gospel of Luke. We spent some time in Jericho, right, with the blind man, with Zacchaeus climbing up in the tree and we looked at those things. Now we’re moving into Jerusalem. And, so, Jesus has walked 18 miles from Jericho uphill pretty much the whole way up to Jerusalem. And we watched Him, you know, we watched the disciples go to get the donkey and He’s sitting on the donkey and riding in, and this is known as the…the triumphal entry and this is something that gets commemorated on Palm Sunday, which…which we observed earlier in this month. So, people are waving palm branches and putting their cloaks down in front of the donkey, and they’ve covered the donkey with cloaks that Jesus can sit on and they’re celebrating and their worshiping God and there saying hosanna to the son of David. They’re…they’re like celebrating. And then they get to the top of the Mount of Olives, crest the monologues, begin to come down the other side and that’s when the scene changes. When you crest the Mount of Olives, kind of at that point on the ancient roads you’re looking down over Jerusalem. You’re above it. You’re looking down at it. Even today it and it's…all its modern…modernity. When you Crest the Mount of Olive from that point you are looking down on the old city of Jerusalem down upon the Temple Mount. As I mentioned before, that’s kind of the quintessential postcard view. And, so, when Jesus crested the Mount of Olives and began to work His way down the other side, He wouldn’t have looked down upon the dome of the rock that is there now. He would’ve looked down upon the temple of the most-high God. That’s where things switch because as the gospel of Luke says, He approached Jerusalem and saw the city and wept over it and said, “if you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace. But now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you and your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.” We can read those words and go, well that’s harsh judgment, harsh prediction or we could understand that this is being said through tears. God in the person of Jesus is weeping as He says this. This isn’t harsh judgment. This is mourning over what could have been. And Jesus foretold of a time that would come where they would be walled in and under siege and…and that was…that was correct and it wouldn’t take that long, a few decades later and the Romans were done with the…the Jewish uprising and revolts, and they came and absolutely completely destroyed Jerusalem. And from that point forward Jews weren’t even allowed in that area, in that city. It was re-built to be a Roman city and Jews weren’t even allowed for a long time. Jesus had come. God had come to show the ways of God’s kingdom, a kingdom that the people were crying out for day and night, and He came to answer them. He was the answer and continually throughout his ministry He was revealing what they were looking for and the way to it. But they could not see any other way to overthrow the global superpower that was the Roman Empire short of a Messiah who would lead them in military revolt. And in mere days Jerusalem would chew Jesus up and spit him out as it were. The people that Jesus loved would reject Him, and not just marginalize Him, they would kill Him. And then within the next decades they would attempt the kind of revolt they were looking for the Messiah to lead and they did, and it did not work. The result was the absolute destruction of the holy city of Jerusalem, including the utter destruction of the temple. Once again, we have this fork in the road where we can see two different paths that lead in two different directions, understanding that there was a way to peace and the path to destruction was chosen. Can we at least acknowledge that we walk these paths as well? We might cry out to God for something that we need or some kind of circumstance to change or people to be moved in or out of our lives or anything that we strive after, and He may come, and He may answer, and He may try to rescue. But we’re so certain about what it is we need, and our assumptions and expectations are in the mix that we can’t even see that He’s trying to show us the way to peace. But we’re rejecting it in favor of this other idea that we think we’ve got to have. He…He might rescue us and we’re not even paying attention, which eventually leads us to think that He…He’s not gonna help, because He’s not gonna help. He’s not gonna obey us. We are to obey Him. And we miss it because we’re not even paying attention. And, so, we attempt to force our will onto the situation and create the environment that we wanted Him to make for us, which could very well be the path that leads to a complete downfall. The part here that’s really penetrating and that should stop us in our tracks is that this…this circumstance, this kind of behavior is sad enough to make God cry. In the example from the gospel of Luke today it’s a longing and a mourning for what could have been if they were just listening if they were just ready. What about us? What could’ve been if we had just been aware and ready? And is that the story we want to be telling here or do we just want to be alert, awake, observant and ready? If we want that then we have to set aside what we think we know. We have to set aside all of the expectations and come to God and say help, I surrender, show me the way to peace. I am willing. Let’s give it some time today to ruminate in our spirits. Let’s give it some thought today in just how much we aren’t paying attention because we’re very very busy paying attention to ourselves.
Prayer:
Jesus, we invite You into this. We all have to agree that we know what it…what it means to go our own way. We know what it means to stop waiting on You, to stop trusting You to believe that You’re not going answer and so we gotta come through for ourselves. And very likely we have all experienced where that road can lead, and it can lead into some pretty bad and dark places. And, so, we begin by asking forgiveness. We also confess our repentance, which means we turn around and go a different way, that that way doesn’t work, and we return to a willing heart and a submissive spirit to Your will and Your ways and Your leadership in our lives. Holy Spirit come lead us into all truth. This is our continual ask. This is our continual prayer, that You would lead us on the pathways of truth on the narrow path that leads to life, that You would be a light to our feet and illuminate our paths and show us when we are stepping in the wrong direction. We ask in Your precious name. Amen.
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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.
Community Prayer and Praise:
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