Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. Happy birthday Kelly and happy birthday. Happy birthday, Kelly. Happy birthday Dear Kelly, is this gonna be autotune? No. Oh, happy birthday to you, Kelly. We are thankful for you and we're also thankful that you're not in the office, but not for the reasons people might suspect. Kelly has mono. You're just gonna out it right there. You're just gonna throw it out there. Well, we, we want to honor her. She's not here. And so people are gonna like, where is she? So I thought it would be helpful to let people know you could pray for her and thank God that none of us here so far come up with any symptoms. That's true. So don't kiss Kelly. Yeah. Even on her birthdate. Touch Mark, you had something profound to say. Nothing, I just was desperately confused. Okay. About why she has it? Well, no, just the, I thought you said it was good that she wasn't here. Yeah. Because she has money. We don't want her to spread it, is what we're saying. Oh, okay. Not because she's not here. I was just explaining to people why she's not here. It's not like she's being lazy. She's not taking time off or anything like that. She's, but it would be far better for her to be here. It would be better. We would like a healthy Kelly any day. Yeah. And we miss you, Kelly. We hope you're doing well. Thanks for listening. We know that you listen faithfully, so we miss you. I saw reel the other day where somebody. Was singing the Happy Birthday song, but all they sang was birthday in the Happy Birthday song. It was really funny because you, are we gonna try that? No, because you can try whatever birthday you want. Like a sad birthday or, well, no. They just like, they left out all the other words other than birthday and they were singing to this guy, it was like a group of people singing to him and so they sang the tune Happy Birthday, but the only word they sang. Birthday. So there's a birthday four times. Yeah. And we're done. Yeah. With the pauses in between. It's efficient. That's weird. It was awkward and it was, it was amazing. What do you do when people sing Happy Birthday to you, by the way? What do you mean? What do you do? What do you do? Smile and wave. Do you just like, do you make eye contact? Do you stare at the floor? Do you I join in, there's call someone else's name out. There's the, the bold people that like direct it, that are like, yes. More. Louder. Louder. Yeah. And you wanna know what I do? I look around at all the people and I pray, take a mental snapshot for those people. Who are they? Yeah. Yeah. Some people, someone said recently. We've been filming birthday celebrations wrong because we always have the camera on the person being celebrated, but rather the person being celebrated should be able to have the camera on everybody else that's there to be able to remember all those people that are there celebrating your birthday. Apple Tech lets you record both though, so I could record my reaction to your singing to me, and I'll get both sides of the equation. But a thing we live in 2026. That's true, right? That see the way to do it. Speed way. That reminds me of that Be Real app. Do you, is that still a thing? Are people still being real or is that not a thing anymore? I think Jacob still has it. Does he? I have not a clue what that even is. Do you have social media? Do you know what social media is? I do. I have X. Okay. You have X? Yes. Does that count? It's like X, but not, that brings a lot of clarity. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Anyways, yeah. Well, you guys were, before we hit record nerding out over Laura Engels Wilder in Little House in the Prairie, and I had no idea what anything was about. Laura. You know what Be real is so you're okay. You know? Yeah, you're totally fine. I, I mean, I think I've actually been to the Wilder compound I, my dad, the compound. I think my, I don't think it's a compound. That's what I heard they call it, that my family took me there when I was littler to show me and I was not so much impressed but like, shape up or don the books and it's just another old house or watch the show. Right. I accept that. I only accept reading the books. Okay. Okay. Well I think you should watch this show and then if you real, if you, once you find out how charming it is, you will decide to read the books. And the show is quite good. Yes. Is there any show slash movie adaptation that you've ever come across that you've said, this makes me appreciate the book more, or it's better than the book Top Gun. Is there books gonna gonna say, that's my way of saying no. Yeah. Okay. I've never come across anything like that where I said, oh, the book just got overshadowed by. I always find the character is one dimensional and I feel cheated because of all the things I'm like, why did they do this other thing? So, no, I've never come across that. How about you? I will say this. I think the Lord of the Rings movies help me appreciate and understand the arc of the books better. Then, even though there's way more that happens in the books than they depict in the movies, as is always the case, but I appreciated it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is. It is excellent work. Yeah. Yeah. As well as the Hobbit trilogy, I enjoyed those movies as well. Those were good. Very good work. Yeah. Not excellent, not excellent. I liked neither of those, really all of I, I, and you know what? Part of it is people like yourselves who love it and have high things to say about it, influenced me to watch it for the first time and pumped it up too much. And then I saw it. I'm like, this is just not as good as they say. Hmm. So I think I probably in another life, I could've loved it, but I just got it at the wrong time. Well, that's the advantage of watching the show or the movie first. So maybe you're right to watch the Laura Les show first. Right. And then you can experience the full glory of the books. I, I and I fully expect to, I'm gonna, once I finish the series, I'm gonna go back and do that whole thing again. But I really want to love Lord of the Rings and the Hobbits and all those things. Yes. And Smeal. Yeah. Yeah. I think he's an undersold character. He's one of my favorite. You think he's kind of the hero of the book, don't he? He's the protagonist, yeah. Of all protagonists. Without him, the book would be nothing. The book would not even make sense mean that is true, but yeah. And a matter of speaking, yes. Somebody, there's been somebody out there that's like fixing movies with ai. And so like my girl, they have him not get stung by the bees and not die. And they're like, oh, isn't it great that we found your mood ring and everything else? And they did Lord of the Rings and when they're on the backs of the Eagles, they're like, what if we just took the Eagle and flew the eagle to Moreor and just dropped the ring in from the sky Movie over. He's over in a minute. That's funny. So anyways, well let's jump into our daily Bible reading for today. Numbers 34 through 36 and Mark 10 32 through 52. Talking about a book that will never be better or that will never be bettered by a movie. And that is the Bible. That's true. True. The Bible will always be better than the film adaptations. I really liked David. It was really good. I was I heard you saying that. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It was good. So just throw that out there. Numbers 34 through 36, we are dealing with some territory of the demarcation of the land. So we're talking about the. Tribal allotments here and what's gonna happen and where the promised land is gonna be. And I guess we're not in tribal allotments yet. We're talking about how large the promised land is gonna be, where the borders are. So again, reading with the map, reading with the atlas helpful during this stretch of the book of numbers tribal chiefs are listed out here. Again, God is a God of order, not a God of chaos. And so he wants to make sure that there is organization within the tribes. The tribes are not just free to go about and conduct themselves as they safe. See fit. But there needs to be a head. There needs to be structure. There needs to be administration. Chapter 35 cities of refuge. This is important. This is talking about the difference between murder and manslaughter. We're gonna get more into that in Deuteronomy, but here there's going to be these cities of refuge that are a place for there to be refuge sought until justice can really be figured out and sorted out here, because there are going to be accidental deaths and so forth and so on. God is really, again, taking this generation that's about to enter the Promised land and giving them some very practical instructions here. And we're eavesdropping on a lot of that right now as we sit here as the church, we're listening to what Moses is telling to these Israelites as they're getting ready to go in. Here's what the land is gonna be. Here's some rules about the cities for refuge. Here's rules about accusations. You need two or three witnesses, not just one. Oh, and by the way, we've got. Female errors here. What happens to the land if somebody marries outside the tribe? Does the land go with the person that's marrying or does the land stay with the tribe? This is a lot of information towards the end of the book of numbers where you may listen to this and go, wait a minute. Well, how do I apply this directly today? And there's some one for one correlations. Like, we have rules for manslaughter today and murder today, and that carries over from all the way back here. But we also have to remember, this was written to a specific people at a specific point in history, and this was to prepare them for what awaited them on the other side of the Jordan River and think about. Yeah. Even as this may not be the most fascinating part of the Old Testament to you think about how exciting this would be to the people of Israel. Yeah. This seems really dry and kind of boring to us, but this sort of stuff would be really exciting to somebody at this point in time because there's the fruition of God's promises on the horizon. Yep. Yeah. Fulfillment. Yeah. I find this part, even though it is a bit drier, I think the more you can connect with Israel's history mm-hmm. The more you find this to be fascinating. Mm-hmm. The cities for the Levites tells me that God is caring for the people that care for his temple and or not the temple at the time. The tabernacle. Then he designates six cities of refuge, which tells me God has a category for somebody that commits a murder. But is first degree or even, and murder and innocence. It doesn't describe exactly why, but someone who can flee from the family what do you call it? The avenger of blood, which again, to me, they don't have police. We think, well, you call the police if there's an issue like this. Mm-hmm. And then they do an investigation and they put you before a trial in front of your peers. But here they don't have that. Right? So there's a family member whose job it is, to avenge the blood of the person who was killed. And unless you go to this city of refuge, your toast, this guy's gonna take you out. Which is a whole mind-boggling way to look at this because we live in a western society with. With judges, and again, police forces and all sorts of things like this, but this is God inventing a people for himself and giving them rules to live by. And one of the cool things about the city, cities of refuge is that Jesus is our city of refuge. Some of the things that we haven't touched on yet is that Jesus is who we flee to for protection against this consuming foe called death who will take us out unless we're found protected by Jesus, the high priest, and he's the one who dies and he secures our freedom Now. Yeah. Oh, amazing. Yeah. Pointed to the Hebrews. Tells us a little bit about this, and so I see a lot of beautiful colors here. I see God interacting with the people in real time. I see so many complexities and questions that I have that arise from the reading of this textbook still is fascinating for me to see, and here God is acting as king. Oh yeah. God is acting as king, which is why you bring up all those different things, right? He's the one instituting these things. He's the one designing how the society is gonna work and creating the laws and the regulations and those things and the people of Israel are supposed to see God as their king. Mm-hmm. We're gonna see in a little bit that there's problems and they don't end up doing that and following through with that. But even in a passage like this, God is acting as the people of Israel's king. That's beautiful. I mean, even the, in verse 30 of chapter 35, anyone kills a person. The murder shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses, which opens up a whole door. We, we do this, we talked about this recently, but what qual qualifies or constitutes a witness here, it was only people. Now witnesses can be considered video, a video feed. It could be a photo. I mean, there's so much complexities entered in here, but I love the fact that God is caring for his people, giving them direction and helping build a just society. We take all this for granted because we live in it, and yet for them this was, this was new. I mean, granted, they're not novel in that no one else was thinking in these same ways. Obviously, there's other peoples who, and there's some overlap here, but God is leading his people and then he is leading them in justice. I love that. Yeah. Verse 13 of 36 says, these are the commandments and the rules that the Lord commanded through Moses. That's right. To the people of Israel. Here's something. Fascinat No, go. Go. Here's something fascinating that I don't know if you, maybe you guys didn't catch this, uh, or you might have overread this. 'cause this is normal for us, but not for them. Verse six. In chapter 36, this is what the Lord commands concerning the daughters of Zho, um, Zol, Zaha Zalo had that guy let them marry the daughters, let them marry whom they think best. Mm-hmm. That's unusual. Yes. They didn't get to choose that. And yet here God gives them permission to do what we as Westerners do all the time. He was telling them, as long as it's within your tribe, you can marry whoever you think is best. Because they didn't have a male headship figure who could say, oh no, I'm gonna have you marry this guy over here. They got to choose another exciting and fascinating in my mind, this is God saying, I understand our cultural moss, but I'm gonna give you provision here to help protect our inheritance and protect you. Yeah. And at that time, right. These people would've actually been kind of insulted by such a suggestion as this. We look back at this and we go, how dare they not have a choice? Why would that not be the norm? We're, we're insulted that that wouldn't be the norm. Yeah, but these people are actually gonna be they're gonna be agitated by the fact that this is something God is doing against the cultural norms of the day. Well, I don't think most people would even notice that. Yeah. I think we would read it like, okay, well what doesn't need to be said, of course, they do think is best, and yet that that's exceptional. Right. That's why it stands out. I'm for prearranged marriages. Let's bring them back. You know, most, most benefits have been benefits. Most of you add up all the marriages in all of history. Oh, most have been. I don't know, man, with, we have 8 billion people on the planet right now. I think we might catch up pretty quick. A lot of people, I don't know. I get it. I get it. You get to pick your in-laws, you get to pick, like, it makes so much sense. Well, okay. Yes, you get to choose selfishly, but if you know your kid and you can make a better decision about, oh yeah. That's a good suitor for you. Yeah. I mean, I, it's, it's, and who has the most cash? Right. Who has the most money and Yeah. The Dow who the best kid. Yeah. The Dowries are gonna be great. That's why I've got four boys. I'm looking for to four dowries. That's gonna be fantastic. Yeah. Yep. Anyways, let's jump over to our New Testament reading. We're gonna be in March, chapter 10 32 through 52. Notice verse 32, here, it says they were on the road. So again, this is after Jesus had said, with man, it's impossible, but not with God, for all things are possible with God. And Peter says, well, we've left everything. And Jesus says to Peter, whoever's left, brothers, or house, or sisters, or mother or father, or children, for my sake of the gospel. They will receive a hundred fold now in this time and house and brothers and sisters and mothers and children lands with prosecutors in the age to, or with persecutions in the age to count of eternal life. The disciples are amazed here. It says in verse 32, they were walking ahead of them and they were amazed and those who followed were afraid. And so it's fascinating 'cause again, you were just talking about, we read things and we go, well, of course, yes. And we can fall pre to that in the New Testament as well. We can read stories that we're familiar with in the gospels, read stories that we're familiar with that, that Jesus has taught and think to ourselves, well, yeah, of course that makes sense and we understand that because we've read this a hundred times, but real time we get the disciples here being in awe of what Jesus is teaching and what Jesus is saying here in those that are around them are afraid. And I don't know exactly what the fear inducing side is because Jesus is not turning over tables or anything now, but maybe they're afraid because they're going, man, this rich young man, he was as righteous as he possibly could be. And Jesus said, he's not qualified. So if he's not qualified, how can I be qualified? I can't be qualified to enter into the kingdom either. So maybe that's the fear there. But this is a, an interesting response that they have to Jesus's teaching here. From here, Jesus predicts his death for now the third time. And this is right before the triumphal entry. So this is the third and I believe the final time of his crucifixion prediction. And still that they're not gonna understand because right on the heels of this comes the request of James and John, where they come up to Jesus and say, we want to sit one on your right hand, one on your left hand. But we've read elsewhere that this was their mom that asked the question here. So, pastor Mark, is it the mom? Or is it James and John and how do we know? Well, it's both right. Okay. 'cause ultimately, James and John are the ones who are inquiring. But I do think we, we get to not see the embarrassment of involving their mom in this particular passage. Thanks, pastor PJ. For what? Pointing it out. Pointing out what Mark is hiding it. And you just brought it out. Well, you know. No. So your take is, this is their mom asking. Yes. But Mark doesn't record that. That would be my interpretation of it. Yeah. Which is weird because again, this is probably Peter's account. And. You know, if he wanted to get back at John, because in John's account John's like, Peter did it, you would do it. He could have done it right here. He could've been like, it was John, John's mom, John's mommy had to ask about this. But clearly they don't understand where Jesus priorities are. And again, that comes back to just the theme of kind of this episode of the podcast. We take for granted so much of what. We understand to be what Christianity is, and yet they were learning, this was unfolding real time before them. They didn't know the things that we know, and this was all new for them. So we look at this and go, what are you even thinking about? Of course that's not yours or Jesus's right to give that to you. That's for the father that's in the future and you've got discipleship in front of you and you've got the cross, the empty. They didn't know any of that at this point. And so they're amazed and they're trying to put the pieces together as they're following Jesus during this stretch. And I think if my. Thinking is correct and that this is the same account where their mom is involved. But I think what's happening here is that Mark is emphasizing the disciples, and I mentioned this a couple days ago, but all of Mark is emphasizing the disciples weakness. I think that's an emphasis and I think that's a helpful way to, to spot what Mark is getting at throughout the gospel. But I think rather than bringing Mom into the equation, there's, he's emphasizing that these disciples really don't get it right. And I think part of Mark's goal, which is I, I must have gotten. What Jesus says here Peter must have gotten it. The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life for a ransom as a ransom for many. I think that's, at least in part, it's funny 'cause we talk about the, in the intentions behind what they say, why they say what they say. And we don't know, like we don't know why John records. Peter doing this. We don't know why Peter doesn't decide to put John. We just don't know. What we have though is what he does tell us. And this, I think this is the point, the point of Christianity is to figure out how much you can serve others so that you can be great in the kingdom. I want greatness and I'm not ashamed to say I wanna be great in God's kingdom and I'm willing to suffer and forego greatness here and now in order to receive that. And I think God wants us to pursue that. I think that's what Jesus is helping them to see. Man, you guys, you wanna be great. Good, but here's how you do it. It's not the way that the world does it. It's not the way that the world pursues these things. It's not about degrees and wealth and privilege and here and now. It might be some of that. Some of you might get that, but it's not really what this is about. It's about serving as you have been served. And I think. We get a great picture of that humility in the way chapter 10 ends. And I think there's contrast here in Mark between this and the rich young man because you have a poor blind beggar and whereas the rich young ruler didn't get it and walked away disappointed. Here you have the poor blind beggar who really becomes a microcosm of what the gospel's all about because clearly he knows his situation, how destitute he is. He knows he's blind. He gets to the place where he realizes and understands that only Jesus can provide what he really needs and is crying out. Son of David, Jesus. Calls him over and says, what do you want? And he says, I wish to be able to see. And now granted, he's talking physical. But I think what we're seeing here is there's a picture of the gospel at work here, the spiritual blindness. All of us at one point had to come in faith to the Lord and say I wish to see Jesus gives him the sight to see, and then says this, he says, go your way. Your faith has made you well. And then the last line is so important to this because it says immediately he recovered a sight and followed him. On the way he follows him and this is discipleship, right? We're blind, we receive the spiritual side to be able to see, and then we follow Jesus. That's the life of the Christian here. So you've got the rich young ruler, the one that everybody would look at and say, this is the guy that's the perfect candidate to be a disciple. And then you've got the blind beggar in Bartimaeus, and yet the one who gets. Isn't the rich young ruler who everybody would be impressed by it's blind bar Bartimaeus, who everyone was telling, Hey, be quiet. The teacher can't be bothered by you right now. So I think Mark's trying to show and then the request of James and John, when Jesus says, whoever wa wishes to be great should be low the lowest of all should be the servant of all. And then you get this picture of this beggar coming forward and he ends up getting it and following Jesus afterwards. All right, let's pray and there'll be done one this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. God, give us all the humility to be able to come before you to say, Lord, not that we want to be the greatest in the sense that the world would consider us the greatest, but in the sense that you would consider us great. And that is by serving. And so give us a humility. Give us a love for one another that overflows from our love for you. And help us to be Lord alike. Bartimaeus instead of like the rich young ruler who wanted to boast in what he's done, what he's accomplished, and how good he is, and what he has or whatever the idols are in our own life, where we might have those things that need to be rooted up or that you'd help us do that so that we can follow you more passionately, more clearly, without obstacle, without hindrance. And so we thank you so much for the gospel. We thank you for Christ. We thank you for the spiritual sight that we have in Him. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen. Keep in those Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye bye. See ya.

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