Hey everybody. Welcome back to yet another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. It is Friday, so happy Friday. You made it through the end of a work week. You did? Yeah, we all done. Yeah. Most of you did. At least some of you, maybe not. Maybe you're feeling like I didn't make it. I didn't make it through. But, uh, coming to the end of the week, the weekend coming up, weekend Services is coming up at our church to make sure that you're already planning ahead of time to be there. In fact, our preaching text this week, we've talked about it, it's helpful to read and be prepared ahead of time. So here it is, preaching text. This week is first Peter chapter one. 14, 15 and 16, 14, 15, 16. So maybe spend a little bit time, uh, reading those and, uh, we'll go from there. Why are you grimacing? Pastor Rod is, is grimacing over across the, the, uh, desk,

so the sound effects that you're listening to that he can't hear. Are happening from our recording console. Oh, great. I just realized that there's effects that I can apply anytime I want. Oh, good. Thank, thank you. Thank you. No applause necessary.

Thank you for that. Applause, folks. I'm gonna, I'm gonna appreciate that. I'm gonna choose to leave my headphones off 'cause I don't think I want to know what the, uh, the sound effects are. All right. Anyways, yeah, so you can, uh, get ready for that. We talked about communion as well. Hey, we had a question written in, uh, one, Danny Mayer Sr. Danny Mayer, the first, if we, if you will. He wrote in a question and said, Hey, it's not necessarily related to the podcast, but he's curious how we choose what we talk about when we, when it comes to our sermons, how do we choose what we preach on? And I Fair question. Um, he asks. Uh, about main Sunday sermons, but also men's retreat, men's breakfasts, things like that. How do we land on what we're gonna talk about? I think probably the easiest answer to that question is, is to talk about Sunday mornings. Um, Sunday mornings are not, Hey, throw a darter to dartboard and figure out what is a good book that we should study together. Uh, we're intentional about that. I'm intentional about it. And, uh, talk to Pastor Rod, pastor Mark Lewis, others about, you know, what, what we feel like some of the, the main areas that our church would benefit from hearing. And, uh, what some of the main areas that need to be addressed are in the church. Now, the way that this is different from a topical study is somebody might say, well, our church needs to, and this is just thrown out an example. This is not necessarily true of our church, but our church needs to learn about generosity. So we're gonna do a series on generosity, and I'm gonna bounce around from passage to passage and just do a bunch of different sermons on the subject to generosity. Rather for us, we stepped back and said, okay, let's start with God's word. What, what book from God's word, would be most beneficial for our church during this season? And so we look. Landed on the book of one Peter, and if you were with us during our first sermon outta that gate, I talked about the, the reason being is because we are called to be an exiled church, not a vacationing church. And in our community, in our area in Prosper, Texas, Salina, Texas, Frisco, wherever you happen to live, or McKinney, Texas, it's easy for us to be vacation in Christians because we live in a very affluent and comfortable area. And so first, Peter confronts us, uh, in a helpful way with the call to be those that are living in exiles believers. And what does that mean? What does that look like? How should I be living as a. Christian. In fact, we'll talk a lot about that this coming weekend on Sunday in our next text in First Peter. So that's how we do that, uh, with regards to Sunday mornings. But, uh, pastor Rod, you are our men's pastor, and so talk to us a little bit about something that's a more, uh, one-off like men's or men's Bible study, something like that. How do we land on, how do you land on what we're gonna talk about, what we're gonna preach on in those contexts?

Yeah, I'll be brief about this. I, I will look for gaps and areas where I think there's opportunity for us to say something different, unique and tailor to the audience. So even though it's true that we typically go exegetically through a passage in the weekend service, that's less the case when it comes to men's Bible study, or even women's Bible study are doing it differently than I'm doing it. And part of the reason is because we're trying to say how many weeks do we have? How much can we reasonably get through and what's gonna be most helpful? So it's not to say that we don't think topical preaching has a place, clearly we do think that because that's what we're doing. So when it comes to men's retreats, men's bible studies, I'm looking at what their normal preaching calendar is. I'm thinking about what you've heard, I'm thinking about what you need to hear, and then I make a decision based on what, what makes sense. Uh, I usually conjure several ideas and then land on one or two that are most helpful, or at least things that I think are most helpful. I'll usually run it by. Uh, my wife. I'll run it by Kelly and Allie, all the pastors of the church. That is, and then I'll ask Pastor PJ and Pastor Mark what they think after I've had the chance to run

through. Is there, is there a boo sound effect that you have

on there? No, but I have, I have clapping. Hold on. Okay.

Oh, okay, good. Yeah, they're clapping for that.

That's great. Just kidding, guys. I only, I only joke because it, it's safe. We, we don't, we don't believe in female pastors. You guys know that. Um, anyhow, all that to say. Uh, that's, that's what I do. There's lots of prayer that goes into it, but often, again, my role is different than pp J's role in that I get to think about some of the areas where I think this would be helpful to talk about. These are the needs that I see in the lives of the men and here's how I think I can best help.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. And that's the same thing with our women's ministry as well. My wife leads our women's ministry and, and she and I talk through what that study is gonna look like, what that's gonna be, but a, a similar mentality there. Yeah. We're, we're not against topical preaching. Um, we don't think it's the bread and butter of the main. The main service, but we do feel like it does have its place in the, the church as well. So, well, let's jump into our DBR for today. We are in Ezekiel 28, 29, and 30, and chapter 28 is, uh, is, is quite a bit, and we're continuing on the subject of tire and God's judgment against tire. We're dealing with the Prince of Tire in chapter 28. Uh, one commentator said that. Ezekiel chapter 28 is one of the most intriguing and one of the most difficult texts in the entire book, but to encourage you, he said the central message of the, of the chapter is simple and clear in the end, and that is that it, it basically, human pride has to be answered by God's judgment. So chapter 28 is really about judging the pride of. The nation of Tire. And we've talked about tire. We've talked about them a couple times already in the podcast, that they were a wealthy nation. They were a nation of commerce and trade. A lot of people came to them to, uh, build up their own wealth through doing business with them. So tire was in a position where their hubris, their pride was, was readily, was readily evident, and it was easy for them to, to feed that pride in that Hebrews. So God was gonna bring judgment. Where chapter 28 gets difficult is. There are portions of it, at least, that people have argued and said, this seems to be describing the fall of Satan. And we talked about that. Jeremiah or Isaiah? Correct. Remind me. Pastor Rod, is it Jeremiah or Isaiah or Ezekiel. Right. But the, is it, it's, uh, is it, is it Isaiah 14? Or Jeremiah 14. That also has the passage. That's about the, the morning star. Isaiah. Thank you. So similar to Isaiah, people have said this seems to be, uh, described in the fall of Satan. And I think, uh, they, they draw that, well, I don't think they draw that. I know they draw that from verses like verse 12, when it says you were the signe of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect and beauty. You were in Eden, the Garden of God. And then later on, he's referred to this person in verse 14 as a cherub. Uh, he's also referred to as a guardian cherub down in verse 16. So. People look at this and say, this is the, the fall of Satan. The difficulty that we have there is the connection with Tyre. It seems to be somewhat outta place in relation to what's going on in Tyre. Now, we've talked about the notion that there are demonic beings and, and God's lowercase G that are. Behind a lot of the foreign nations that are not Israelites, uh, that that could be the case here. That this is a reference to one of those foreign lowercase g gods, the God of Tyre, whoever that is, that's who's being addressed here. The power behind the king of Tyre, is that Satan? I don't know that we can get to that point to that. Degree or that level. And that's one of the things that makes chapter 28 so difficult. But the main message of chapter 28 is God is gonna judge human pride. And that's one that we need to take to account too and to make sure that we're guarding against that. And that pride, that sin of pride rather comes up so many times in the judgment of the nations here in the book of Ezekiel. And it's worthy of our attention because it's God getting our, our focus on saying this is something so common and he will not put up with it. He is gonna judge and humble the proud.

Yeah. The more I read this, the more I have, I have to think that there's likely a double entendre here. That there is, he is talking about the king attire, but also saying that the power behind the king attire is actually the power of Satan himself. So I'm, I'm gonna punt a little bit and say, I think it's both.

So

yes.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, and I guess, yeah, I, I see that it's hard not to, to get there with verse 13, you were in Eden. Unless we're gonna find some sort of a metaphor that he's trying to communicate there about what Eden really means in that context. And then we're in trouble because now we're trying to make words mean something that they didn't mean plainly in other areas. And so the best interpretive practices, they probably say, yeah, that's what he means. You were in Eden, and the only demonic being that we know for sure was in Eden. Is Satan himself. I, I guess the trouble for me is, man, you, you think about all of the other nations, uh, you think about Babylon, you think about Edem, you think about, you know, all of these other nations that God has Egypt that we're gonna read about more tomorrow. Um. Why tire? And I guess we just don't know.

Well, and that's I think part of what gives me a little bit of confidence that this makes sense because God's not saying Satan's behind all these guys. He's saying he's behind these ones now. Why these guys? Maybe there was a, a strategic place that he can operate from a base, uh, of. Uh, something that made sense for him, but the fact that he's localized to one region, to one king, to one people, that makes sense to me because he's a singular individual. He's not like God. He could treat everywhere at all times. Now, that's not to say that he doesn't have minions. He doesn't have other lowercase g gods to work for him, but that he himself is concentrated in one place. We see that also in the Book of Revelation. There's a church that dwells where Satan's throne is. That's terrifying. I don't wanna be there. No, thank you. I'm moving out tomorrow. But that tells us that Satan is. He's not God. He is only able to be at one place at one time. So for whatever reason, I think tire was the place. He, he knew that that was the best place for him to be. So it still makes sense for me. Uh, but I agree. It's, it's hard to think, okay, well why this place? Why that time? And

perhaps it's just their pride and, and that we know to be the main. Offense that the, or at least the original sin of Satan was his pride in wanting to be like God. And perhaps that's why he's associated with tire, because tire, that was their main problem and their main sin as well was, was the pride of tire. Verses 20 through 24 though, we get another region. This is Sidon, S-I-D-O-N. This is a region often associated with tire. They were another coastal city. They're gonna have judgments as well. This is a sister city there of tire, so they're lumped in together here, but they're also singled out for individual judgment for their own sins. And then as the chapter lands, you have a, a flash forward again to the millennial kingdom that God is going to, in contrast to the judgment that's gonna be poured out upon tire and sein, he's gonna gather his people, he's gonna manifest his holiness in them in the sight of all nations. That's the main reason I would say that this is, and that's in verse 25, that this is a reference to the future regathering of Israel, not the regathering that's gonna take place under Nehemiah and Abel and the return of the exiles, uh, after the 70 year captivity. I think this is looking forward to the millennial kingdom. His God is not gonna manifest his holiness in the post exilic nation of Israel, but in the future millennial Kingdom nation of Israel. Chapter 29. Then, uh, we're, we're actually in Egypt. I said tomorrow, it's, today. Uh, we're, we're back with Egypt here. And in chapter 29 we're dealing with, uh, the, the timeframe is, is 5 87 BC there in the 10th year, again, we're going back to the 10th year since Ezekiel's captivity, 5 97. That, uh, deportation there. So 5 87 bc In fact, January of 5 87 BC is the specific. Timeframe here. Uh, and this is going to indict the, again, pride of the nation of Egypt. This time, uh, Pharaoh is gonna be called out for boasting in the Nile as though he was the one that was sustaining it. In fact, God is going to use this imagery of the agrarian culture of Egypt and the fishing, uh. Culture of Egypt and Pharaoh is gonna be compared in verse four to one of the fish that he boasted about, that he would become as one of them. And judgment was gonna come on Egypt, uh, that that was going to be full and thorough. And this judgment we've seen before, Jeremiah 43 through 44, uh, Nebuchadnezzar is very clearly seen in that passage in Jeremiah as the instrument of judgment against Egypt. But he's going to come and he's going to bring God's wrath upon the Egyptians. And the, the Egyptians were the ones that had. Not only been the, the captives and enslavers of God's people way back during the time of the Exodus, but even after that, throughout this whole time of Israel's latter stages before captivity, Egypt had been the one that they were most tempted to go to for support. Egypt had been one of God's biggest rivals for the affections of his people, and they had betrayed the people of Israel and proven to be that broken staff that they would lean upon and, and so God is going to judge. Egypt. God is going to prophesy against them through Ezekiel here and Egypt will eventually reach her downfall in 5 71 BC again at the hands of Babylon there.

Why in verse 13 then, does God say that he's going to. Gather the Egyptians from the peoples among whom they were scattered and restore the fortunes. Why does God choose to restore the

fortunes of Egypt? Yeah, I mean this is seen in other prophets as well. In fact, some of the minor prophets talk about this, that in the end, and, and I think this is again, this is the millennial kingdom territory in timeframe, Egypt is going to once again be a, A nation and God is going to use. Egypt to testify to his glory at that point. As he is there with the, the Israelites in the millennial kingdom, the response of some of these nations that once stood against him is going to serve to magnify him and glorify him because they're gonna be there in the presence of Jesus, the, the Messiah, and they're going to pay him the, the honor and the homage that he's due. And so that regathering is not for the sake of Egypt, but ultimately I think it's gonna be in the future for the sake of God and his glory. That's exciting. Chapter 30, then we get the lament. So this has kind of been a pattern. We see the judgment coming, then the lament, and then we, we move on. And so here's the lament. This is the durge. This is the, the morning of the fall of Egypt. And in here, in verse three, you see the reference to the day of the Lord, uh, the day of the Lord. Remember, anytime we see that phrase, it can have an eschatological meaning, but it also can have a, a near. Meaning it can have a, a meaning that has to do with the, the temporal context. And I think that's what's in view primarily here. Uh, as again, the end of Egypt at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar is in view, specifically named in verse 10. I will put an end to the wealth of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. And what was gonna be attacked specifically, verse 12 was the Nile. I will dry up the Nile and sell the land into the hand of evil doers. Why the Nile? Because the Nile was the crown of beauty for Egypt. It was the, the main source of her boasting. It was the main source of her thinking that she didn't need God. And if you think back to the Exodus, that was one of the things that God went after was the Nile River during the 10 plagues that he sent upon the, the nation of Israel. So the Nile is going to stand for the pride of Egypt and God is going to bring that Egypt there or that that judgment. Against Egypt at that point. Yeah, we've got a little bit more on Egypt tomorrow with, uh, a focus specifically on Pharaoh this time. But, uh, we are, are continuing in, uh, this section of his ego again, God's judgment against these foreign nations that he's going to judge the Gentile nations, uh, as part of what he's doing on the, the world scene. It's not just about Israel. He's also executing judgment at the same time on the nation's surrounding Israel as well. Let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode. God, we just ask for wisdom to understand the things of your word that are difficult, like Ezekiel Chapter 28. And we want to not draw conclusions that are presumptuous, but draw conclusions that do fit the context of your word. So give us sharp minds and minds that are hungry to know. I pray that we would ask the right questions, that we would ask questions to begin with, that we wouldn't just let our eyes glaze over this and, and maybe the question arises in our minds and we just shove it away because we don't wanna do the hard work to find the answers. I pray that you'd keep us hungry to know more, to learn more, and to grow more in our under. Standing of you through your word, and so we pray that in Jesus' name, amen. Keep reading Bibles. Tune again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Maya.

Well, thank you for listening to another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, folks! We're honored to have you join us. This is a ministry of Compass Bible Church in north Texas. You can find out more information about our Church at compassntx.org. We would love for you to leave a review, to rate, or to share this podcast on whatever platform you're listening on, and we hope to see you again tomorrow for another episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said