Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello and good morning. We talked yesterday about moving up and moving in. Another thing that you could do to really. Help us and bless us. And we talked about as your pastors saying, Hey, this is what we think you should do and we feel like this is the right thing for you to do. And that is join a community group. We'd love for you to get plugged in with us for sure. This is the time of year that a lot of people are thinking about getting back involved in things. I know my kids' sports have taken off, again, new soccer teams, new basketball team, things like that. A lot of people are thinking, okay, it's time to, to get started with something. This is a great time to jump in with community groups. We are gonna be switching over to our Church Center app with that, I don't know if it's out just yet, but soon where you'll be able to go to our church center app, which you can download on the app store or the Google Play Store or whatever you happen to have access to. It'll ask you for your phone number. You can find our church on there, and that's basically all you need. And then once you log in there, you can look up groups that are a group, not a church. You found a church you attend our church, you can find a group on there. But I think when you register for the app you search for your church. Okay. Yeah. You're searching for your church. You're not searching for a new church? No. You just to, I don't want you searching for a new church. No. You're searching for us now what this advertisement is about. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. What I'm trying to get rid of you. Find us, and then you'll be able to find a group on there. And this is so important and it's more than just, Hey, we wanna bump up our numbers in our community groups. We want you there because this is where we feel like discipleship takes place, where life change takes place, where the sermon is applied, where you're praying for people. And it's just a another step of ownership. And where we're at in the church, in fact, we were talking about the fact that man our church is growing. We talked about that yesterday on the podcast. It really is. And we have plans and desires and ambitions to, to set the church up, to be able to grow even more. And yet there's some key areas that we need to identify some more leaders in and we need to identify some key people that we can trust and say, Hey, we need you to fill, fulfill this role. Right now, a lot of our community group members are already filling vital roles. We've got a great saturation in people that are in community and serving. Those are roles though, that we're not just gonna grab somebody outta the seats that we haven't gotten a chance to know yet and say, Hey, we want you to come and be in this role. You could be the most gifted person in the world in that role, and yet we want to get to know you. And community is such an important part of that. If you're not in community groups, consider this our call to you, to make that call and make that move. Get involved, get plugged in. Commit to a community group, commit to another group of brothers and sisters in Christ and join something like that so that we can continue to see God provide leaders and volunteers for us. That's right. Thanks, man, that, that sounded a lot smoother on the podcast because you removed the the gap there. I can take my time now. You can just wait, can just all the time I need and then cut out the silence and everyone is none the wiser. No, thanks for pointing it out. None the wiser. I'm here to do that. Yeah, and there's no more sound effects because you can't clean up the podcast on that, so Not easily. Not easily. Yeah. I still can do it and I still may. May if I had a day where I just wanna spend the time to, but not this one. Not today. Yeah. Alright speaking of time, we've got quite a bit in front of us in Ezekiel 37, 38, and 39. 37 is the dry bones chapter. Them bones, them dry bones. That old song that's Ezekiel 37 and what the dry bones represent here is the Nation of Israel. And God's saying that he's gonna breathe new life into the nation of Israel. And the bones are going to metaphorically that is. Be brought to life. They're gonna receive sinews and flesh and muscular systems and all those things. And then the breath of life is going to be commanded. And the breath of life is gonna be given to these bones and they're going to live again. And so this is a picture of what God is going to do for the nation of Israel. In the future as he restores them in their land, like we talked about yesterday, the Abrahamic covenant, when he brings them back into their land, the millennial kingdom they're gonna once again be his people. And there's gonna be that spiritual vitality that is there with them during this season in in the millennial kingdom. So this isn't about resurrection per se, right? But it seems like it, it leaves the door open at least for there to be a general. Not general revelation, general resurrection, not the point. Sure. Not the point. I don't think that's what Ezekiel's trying to communicate, but I think it at least hints in the faintest way, much those sodas, they're not sodas actually, they're, what are they called? Sodas? I don't, no. What are you talking about? They got like a hint of something in them. Beer. They're water. No beer does not have a hint of anything. That's a lot of stuff in there. No. It's one of those fizzy drinks that has Oh, like LaCroix? Yes. Okay. Okay. This is like a LaCroix. It's got the faintest sense of rev. No, I keep saying revelation of resurrection, but it's not really there. I'm almost positive that no one has ever said, Ezekiel 37 reminds me of LaCroix until right now. So congratulations. It's creativity. There you go. On the fly. It is. When I was in high school, my favorite class included. Improv games. One of my favorite things to do of all time, in fact, I still want to take us to, there's an improv place in McKinney. Is there where we can do a class together as a staff, we would love it. It would be so much fun, and Erin has promised to help get us a group rate and maybe the discount because we're a church and she knows us. I was just thinking, Aaron, I'm looking at you. Help us out. Still wanna do it. We'll see about that one. We'll see about that one. Real quick here. Yeah. The rattling of the dry bones. Yeah. I've heard people preach on this text and to use it in a lot of different ways. Okay. Is it fair? To take the principle of God brings the dead to life, or God adds things according to the word of the prophet. How can we take this text and not abuse it, but still take a principle out of it? So you and I are trying to do some of that. Is it fair to use it to say if I wanna do a song called Rattle and I want to talk about God doing something like that in my life is that fair? I like God renews. He brings new life when I'm totally He does. Yeah. When I'm feeling dry and my soul is dead or feeling like death, he brings me back to life. Bring me back to life. Yeah. I can't wake up. Yeah, save me Evanescence. I, I wouldn't here, I think it's another gener, Jeremiah 28 or 29 11 type situation. It's like you can grab that principle about God from somewhere else in the Bible. There are other passages that teach that clearly that you can say, okay, I can. That may be true. That is true. God does breathe life into things and, do a new thing and everything. But I don't know that we look at this passage which is clearly saying, Hey, Israel's dead, but I'm gonna give a future life to Israel and say, oh. And so what that means for you is God wants to give new life to your. Business. God wants to give a new life to your marriage. God wants to give new life to your can you argue that? Maybe he does and there's other passages that you could turn to for that. I just wouldn't go to this one for that. What about something like speaking life to your dead situation? Speak life. Speak life. There's a song all about that, right? Yeah. Toby Mack, we're looking at you. I like the song, by the way. Yeah. Is speaking life to my dead situation. An another application that I could fairly use in my marriage, my parenting, yeah. My new venture that I'm pursuing. College. Whatever. I would say again, no I don't think that's what God wants us to do here. I don't, God is. Imparting life into these bones. And yes, he's doing so through the prophet, but it's coming directly from him with a specific message about the future of Israel. So I don't think this is saying to you as the Christian, Hey, go and speak life into this situation. Now, Proverbs, which are women are gonna be studying next weekend, does say that the tongue has the power of life and death, but that's a different kind of life. That's not to speak life as in manifesting life or creating life that's giving, it's a life giving. It's edifying, it's building someone up or tearing someone down in that, in the death side of that. Yeah, I wouldn't grab that, that principle from here. Can I still sing Toby Max Speak life? Sure you can. Yeah. Okay. Just know that it's, it doesn't come from this. Okay. Yeah. I accept those terms. Yeah. What's interesting is I brought this up before, but you go to Israel on the Mount of Olives, all of the tombstones and there's these massive graveyards that are there. I think you said you wanted to be buried there. I did. And I can, 'cause I'm partially Jewish, you can actually, yeah, probably from the trap of ju you may need a little bit of money to get in there. Pretty sure it's pretty well booked up after. I think the church will support me in this about 2000 years of burials and yeah. Anyways all of their feet are facing the city, so there the amount of olives is outside the walls of the city and all of these tombstones are. The people are buried so that their feet face the city. And the reason is because when the Messiah comes back, they believe they will be brought to life and enter into the city for the millennial kingdom with him. And Ezekiel 37 is the background to that belief that the bones will literally be brought back to life. And they will enter into the city with the resurrect, with as resurrected saints, with the Messiah at that point. So it does come through in Jewish theology that way. Alright let's talk interesting stuff. Some more here with with GOG and May Gog. And this is one of those sections that I, I think as long as we don't try to press it too much, it doesn't have to be super confusing for us. And it's become super confusing because people have said who is GOG and who and what is May GOG? And it's this person and it's this area and when we begin to do that's when we begin to cross lines into speculation and that's when we can begin to get in trouble. And sometimes it comes back to bite us. For example, the Bible Knowledge commentary, when they comment, wrote their section on Ezekiel 38, said, this is probably gonna be somebody that's gonna come out of the USSR. So if you know anything about recent history, the USSR hasn't really been around or been a thing for a while. So when we make bold claims about things like that we have to be careful because now all of a sudden we, we look like. If it's not the USSR, then who is it gonna be? And can I trust what you have to say on these other things? We have to take the Bible for as much as we can understand it. What we can say is, I believe that G GOG is the antichrist here, and he's gonna come from a land known as Mego, and he's going to come against the people of Israel during a time when there's a general peace with the people of Israel. So if we flash forward. To the time of the tribulation, period. So the church has been raptured. The church has been taken off the scene, by the way. Okay, let's set context. We're in the church age right now. Next thing for us is the rapture. So Christ is gonna come back and remove the church from the scene to go to be with him. Then there's the seven year tribulation period. The first three and a half years of that tribulation period. The antichrist is going to have a treaty of peace with the nation of Israel. And so that would help us understand Ezekiel 38, 8, and verse 14, when the people of Israel are currently at peace, when GOG shows up on the scene to come against them. When GOG attacks, he's coming from the north. And again that's could be that they're located in the north, but remember, Babylon came from the North, Persia came from the north against Babylon. It's the direction of invading armies is the north. When we read about it in prophecy. So God comes against God's people and he's going to attack them and he's going to bring his vengeance upon them, his aggression on them. And it, it sounds like a lot in verses 18 through 23, that this seems a lot like those last three and a half years of the tribulation, when the antichrist is really gonna ratchet up the heat against Israel, against the people of God. And so that to me seems to be who God is the antichrist who comes from the land of Mago. The antichrist is going to have a nationality. What nationality? We don't know, and that's where we can get into trouble trying to speculate on that, but that seems to be what Ezekiel Chapter 38 is dealing with GOG and Magog. Yeah, probably the best way to look at this is that this is clearly a confederation of nations against Israel. That's as simple as you need to keep it. And once you understand that this nation, these nations, this collection of nations, they're working together against them upending their peace and giving it one more go to destroy them. And of course, God's not gonna let that happen. And that really is the point. To your point, I agree entirely. It does us a disservice to try to say this. Nation is this particular people group, and they live over here, that kind of thing. So be careful with that. Some people talk about reading the Bible and reading the newspaper at the same time. Would you would you encourage something like that because you do want to look at the nations and look at the headlines and say clearly scripture talks about this, but to. To say this, is that a helpful practice that you would've commend? Jesus does tell us, Hey, we need to be watchful. We need to watch for the signs of the times we need to not keep our heads buried in the sand. We need to be ready for those things. But I think that's our takeaway is at the end of the day, not looking to press the details as much as to say, am I ready? Am I ready for the return of Christ? Yeah, it could be at any time. Now you're gonna hear wars and rumors of wars. He says, this is not the end yet. This is the beginning of the end. This is the birth pangs. Certainly we can look around and see that there's been rumors of wars for eons, right? And we need to understand that Christ could come back at any minute, and I don't think we should read the news and the Bible in the same breath and say, okay, so that helps me interpret the Bible. I think we need to say, the Bible helps me interpret what's going on in the news today, and that is that. That Christ is going to come back. There is something that God is doing on the timeline and I need to be ready for that. Yeah. That direction is critical. Yeah. We use the Bible to interpret the news not the other way around. Yeah. Alright, anything else on, on 38? I know GOG and Mago big deal. But I think, again if we keep it simple it is, it's understandable when we read through it. Cool. Chapter 39, then we get into Ezekiel focusing on the judgment of gog. Now, the judgment of go's armies God is not going to put up with this. He's not going to allow Gog ultimately to be victorious. And this is again. The end times situation. And so if this is the antichrist, that coalition, then what's going to take place is that the Lord is gonna come back and he's gonna vanquish the antichrist. He's gonna vanquish the false prophet. He's gonna vanquish all of his forces and enemies. And that is gonna be the moment that marks the beginning of the millennial kingdom. And what we read about in chapter 39 is the destruction of all of these armies that are gathered against God's people is pretty vast, such that it's going to take seven. Months for God's people to go out and to clean up the land of all of the corpses that have been laid waste in this land. And all of the remnants of the co corpses, they talk about going out and marking where different bones are and things like that. So I don't know what that, that distraction is going to look like, but I can imagine that even from what we've seen from some things for example, the atomic bombs that were dropped in Japan during World War ii th their w. Still finding evidence of the damage of those things. When they do different digs and things like that, they're still saying, oh, look at this fragment from this building that shows a char mark from the explosion that took place there. So whatever God's ultimate judgment is gonna be here, it doesn't have to be that there are so many bodies that is gonna take seven months to grab all of the bodies and bring them back. But the general cleanup process to cleanse the land of the defilement of corpses is gonna take seven months. That's what the scripture says. I think we believe at that for face value and say that's what it's gonna be. I think this is taking place concurrent with the reign of Christ. I don't think this is a seven month gap where Jesus is waiting to set up the millennial kingdom until this takes place, I think he's there. And this is part of the cleansing process that's taken place in the dawning of the millennial kingdom here. But God is gonna be destroyed by God is the point. Here. Here are the heart behind this. So what, it's 2025 right now, right? I don't see this happening next week. This doesn't really change a whole lot for me when I go to the office as I'm driving to work right now, maybe, or I'm at the gym. What does this do for me? Yeah. A couple things. Number one, you're gonna be with Christ. We're gonna be there as the church. When Christ comes back to reign during the millennial kingdom, the church comes back with him. And when all of this has taken place in Ezekiel 39 is being fulfilled and the cleanup process is taking place, we're gonna be there. And so this is something that, that we wanna know about because we'll be on the scene for this. This is not something that's we somewhere else and this doesn't relate to us at all. We're gonna be present there, number one. And then number two, it. Tells us and provides comfort for us that God wins in the end. And that's such a huge comfort in the world in which we live. When things are so chaotic and you do look at the news and sometimes the news carries more weight than the Bible does from time to time, this is a reminder. God wins in the end and we can trust that and have a peace about that. As we we move through this life, that's a great reminder. We need that because we often are so caught up with our lives and our situation, right? Even as I brought up the question, thinking, we're just thinking about my slice of earth, right? And what I have to do. We forget so many times the larger story that's taking place and our privilege position is that we're part of the story, but we are not the main character. God is the main character. His glory will be vindicated. And this is the role that we play in, that we support, that we encourage that. We long for that. We pray for that. And this is the end of all human history. Really. We're seeing the last stages of human history being wrapped up. This is end game, but in real life, right? And God's end game is really on, on. On stage here, not the Avengers, it's God, he's the great avenger, and he will set all things right. So whatever's happening in your life, if you're parenting and you're having a difficulty with your child, or if you're gonna work and there's a, a boss situation, this is the bigger picture, don't forget that will help you put everything else in perspective. Yep. A hundred percent. Let's pray and then we'll wrap up this episode. Lord, we are grateful for that truth that you win in the end and that is such a good thing. And you are the one that is going to decide when that end comes. And the timing of all of it is yours. And we want to trust you. We wanna walk faithfully right now. We wanna live in obedience to you right now and live ready for that whenever it happens. So as we navigate through texts like Ezekiel 37. 38, 39. Help us Lord to see why this does matter to us. That it does impact us where we sit today and prosper Solana or Frisco or McKinney or wherever we happen to be listening to this, that this matters because it's the outworking of your sovereign plan. And that involves today to today. We were one day closer to this being reality than we were yesterday. And tomorrow will be another day closer. And so we don't wanna take these days for granted because they're moving forward in the progression of the unfolding of Salvific redemptive history according to your will. And so help us to play the role that you have for us in that which right now is to trust and to look for your return and to make sure that we are on mission to point others to Christ as well as we pray this in Jesus name, amen. Keeping your Bibles tuned in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. We'll see you then. Bye.

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