Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. What's up people? It is what day is it? It's Friday. Happy Friday, April 4th week. That's you made it to the end of the week. Good job everybody. Well done. And we've got a full weekend in front of us. We've got men's Bible study tomorrow. Men. Make sure that you are planning to be there. Make sure that you're registered so that we get enough food for you. I don't know what we're having this week. Burritos. Burritos again. Chick-fil-A breakfast burritos from. Valerie's. Valerie's? Yes. Okay. That's right. I'm pretty sure that's it. I'm mostly sure that's it. And if I'm wrong, then I just said mostly Sure. And say completely. So you should come either way and you should bring people with you. Bring your neighbor. Yeah, you should. Definitely. And I talked to Angelo and there's gonna be some fun games going on ahead of time. I'm not gonna give away what they are, but, all right. He had a target like leadership thing this week and they games. They used the games there, so he's borrowing them and bringing them over to men's Bible study for that. Sounds fun. I can't wait. Yeah. What else have we got going on this weekend? We've got oh, the evangelism outreach on Saturday after men's Bible study. Some people are meeting up at the church to go out and begin our effort to reach 4,000 homes around our community. 40,000 homes. It's exciting. Yeah. 4,004. Four. Yeah. Close. Yeah. 40 LF yeah, around our community here. We're gonna be doing that on Saturday, also on Sunday. So my family and I'll be there on Sunday for that one. After the service, we're going out to the neighborhoods again. And then I think we've got another round of that. Happened in the week after. Or maybe the week after that. So that's coming up. We've got the Compass camp out coming up in just over two weeks. People are excited about that. About a week and a half. I think we have more signups for this than anything else we've done. I ever I think you're right, period. I think you're right. I didn't realize people liked camping so much. They like outside. They like outside. Yeah. Let's hope that the weather accommodates. I agree. Agree. That is a big asterisk. Yes. Because we don't know what's gonna be happening in the next two weeks. And according to ponder on weather, it is severe storm season. It is severe storm. In fact, we're in the midst of that right now. Yeah. Every night it's like, Hey, Hale's coming. Yeah. So squeeze your cars in. Good luck. You're breathing in as you're pulling your car in the garage. Here's my question. If you get hail and there're big hail and there's coming through your window, what do you do? So I keep, 'cause he 'cause ponder hey, have more than one way to get alerts on your device. So that you can do what are you gonna do? I think he's more concerned with just not being by windows, getting your kids outta their room so there's not flying glass. Should there be any broken glass? Getting to a central location where there's no windows. That's what they always tell you to do. Okay. So stay away from a window. Exactly. That's the idea. That's the thing they're trying to get you to say. That makes sense. Don't be. Don't be by something that could break, that could kill you. Yeah. And that's the same with tornadoes. That's why they have you go inside to a centralized room with no windows. That one makes sense to me. Yeah. I was unclear about how, what I'm supposed to do with a hail and I, man. I think it contrary to what happened with the Kelly's I think it's rare that you get hail that actually bust the windows. Yeah. Open. That's unique. So good on you Kelly's for having that privilege that they're ready. They're but I think typically it's more. Just it's the damage it can do to the cars, which some people in my neighborhood have those inflatable car covers that Yeah. They put on their cars. Yeah. I've I've looked into those 'cause I'm thinking, oh, that's cool. I can keep my car outside and still do the thing. There are multiple hundreds of dollars. Yeah. I, a good one is like 600 bucks. Yeah. I just suck in my gut and squeeze my car next to my wife's in the garage. That's what we've done. We're not spending that kind of money, although they do look pretty cool. Looks like a spaceship. Yeah. Or a giant larvae, and I guess it's a flex. It's look, I bought this. It's all your neighbors. It does look nerdy. So I don't know that it's a flex. Does it look cool or does it look nerdy? Because you're giving conflicting things here. It's they're both. You can have something nerdy looking that's also cool. Spoken like a true theologian. Truly. Hey, speaking of theologians not to be a wet blanket on an otherwise cheerful podcast so far but I think, man, something happened this week that is. Is tragic, horrific there are no there, there are not enough adjectives to describe the horror of what took place. And that is that this altercation that took place in, in Frisco there where one 17-year-old high school student stabbed another 17-year-old high school student and ended up killing him. This hit home with a lot of, I know our students and those that are in our student ministry. It hit home with my kids, my two oldest at least. Though they didn't know either of these two boys personally, I know my oldest Joshua has friends in school that knew him and had interacted with him before. Man, you just don't think something like this is gonna happen. And it was just a horrific, awful. Situation. That's actually garnered national media attention now too. And this is right in our backyard here. And it just reminds us of the brevity of life. My son was saying, I can't believe he got up and left home that morning to go to school. And that's the last time his parents saw him or were able to talk to him or anything else. And now he's gone. And just a hard for us to wrap our minds around. And I just preached last Sunday on the fact that God is sovereign over the details of our life. And now something like this takes place. Yeah. It's okay, this is where the flesh is put on the bones of a sermon like that. And I, it's still true Today. God is still sovereign. God was sovereign over that altercation. God was sovereign over that young man's life ending when it did. Psalm 1 39 says that he knows the number of days that he has prepared for us before even one of them comes to pass. And so we, we look at this and we say, what a tragedy. He died too young. He died too soon. And I understand the sentiment there and I agree with that sentiment from our perspective. But from God's perspective, it was on time. And the why behind it we may never know we're hoping at this point in praying that he was a Christian and that her his parents and his siblings are Christians. There's some statements that they've released that would. Lead you to think that. And and yet we don't know for sure, but this is a horrific situation that reminds us. I was talking to my kids yesterday and just saying, this is Cain and Abel. This is this situation with Moses in the Egyptian. This is David and Uriah. This is. This is murder that has been around since the dawn of time. And this is horrific and tragic, and we weep with those who weep. And I'd love to be able to tie a nice bow on it for everybody, and I trust that the Lord is going to bring good out of it because his word says that he does. Out of every circumstance that, that, at least for those who love him, good, is the byproduct the final result. And maybe we'll be able to hear about what that is. Maybe it'll be eternity before we get to hear what that is. But we can trust when we can't see that he is working good. And yet we can also say, man, this is. Horrible, and this is horrific and this hurts. And our hearts break for his family. And we even have this desire for justice to be done that's there as well, that I think is appropriate. And yet it's just a reminder to that, that sermons. Our one thing in the vacuum, sometimes of our auditorium and another thing when we face the headlines of the day and have to reconcile the truth of God's word, not just on Sunday mornings of the Bible in our laps, but while the headlines are splashing across the screen and social media comments are being made left and right here it's that there where it's so important for us to hold fast to the biblical truths. One student asked if. It's righteous anger to long for justice for this kid to say, look, man, I hope this kid gets the book thrown at him and even maybe even gets a death penalty. I'm putting words in the guy's mouth, but this is the sentiment. This is the idea. Is it wrong? Is it sinful to say, God, please judge this guy. It. Paul says, the government does not bear the sword in vain. And so I think that there's a righteousness of saying we want justice to be done in accordance with the law that God has in instituted and instilled to be the execution of said justice. We have to balance that with the reality that, no amount of earthly justice is ever gonna be able to satisfy our longing for justice in this situation. We have to be careful not to go into the realm of the grotesque wanting this person to suffer in ways that are not helpful or right for us to be entertaining. And then we also have to understand, man, ultimate justice is gonna be done either. On the cross through Christ. If this young man who committed this crime comes to faith in Christ, or it's gonna be a justice that he's gonna face in eternity, and that's gonna be true justice. But as far as can we desire that, that the law is upheld and justice is done from a, a Romans perspective of the government not bearing the sword and vain, I think that's an appropriate desire there for saying, God, we want this wrong to be. Write it from even our perspective. You said a few moments ago that God's the one who determines the start date of our lives, the end date of our lives, and so God, it seems like you're saying, determined to end Austin Metcalf's life at this particular juncture. Now, you're not gonna say this to the parents, I'm sure, at least not right now, and not in that way. But it sounds like you're saying that God is responsible for evil. Can you help clarify that? For those who are listening and saying how does it, how is it not true then that God is behind every evil thing that happens? Yeah. The permissive will of God is to be balanced by the understanding that if we go to job right, you've got a situation in Job where Satan appears before God and says, Hey, I. Does Job Fury for no reason, reach out your hand and strike him. And God says, you may afflict him. You may do these things. And so Satan goes out and Satan is the one that is, is orchestrating the events of the downfall of job's, children, right? You think about death here, Satan is the one that's bringing death to the children of Job. And yet it's in accordance with the permissive will of God such that job is able to say. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. So I will say blessed be the name of the Lord. And so there is the sovereignty of God without moral culpability. Moral culpability is charged to the agents of evil, the agents of sin, the agents of death. In this instance, being the young man who stabbed Austin Carmelo. Carmelo that is, he's the one that is gonna bear moral responsibility for that. And ultimately, in the end, Satan and his demons as well as the God of this world, the prince of the power of the air will suffer for eternity as well for his own part in the suffering in that. I've heard atheist and other critics of the, of our faith say if that's the case, then. It seems like everybody's a pawn and God's just moving pieces on the chess board as he sees fit. If the agent's responsible and you're saying the pawn is responsible what about the person moving the pawn? How is he not culpable? Yeah. Because in, in part, I. Scripture teaches us that he's perfect, he's righteous, he's holy. And so we have to hold the things that we see in concert with the things that we, that have been revealed to us in the written word of God. And so there are times and this is gonna be true not just with situations like this, but other situations when we can't fully understand how these things compute. And that's because of our finitude. And that sounds like a cop out. And yet at some point we have to get there. Otherwise. We, if we can explain everything about God, he is no longer God. He's a figment of our imagination. And so there are times where our finitude is off most often felt in situations. We feel like we need an explanation that we don't get, that we can't. We can't have, that's not ours to, to bear. So if scripture says that God is holy, then that means that God cannot be evil. God cannot be a perpetrator of evil. When James says, let no one say when he is tempted that he's been temp, being tempted by God, for God himself cannot be. Cannot tempt anyone, nor can he be tempted by evil. We have to take passages like that into account with our reconciling of this situation. So God is sovereign over these things. God is orchestrating and man is a hundred percent responsible. And those two truths look like they compete with each other, and yet the Bible holds them intention with each other and that's ours to do as well. Yeah, and I think the lived experience of every person that. Is listening to this podcast or not, is that you're choosing, you're making a choice right now to listen. You're making a choice right now to do, maybe you're driving or do something else. You're choosing these things. Your personal experience doesn't negate the fact that scripture says God is sovereign, but it does highlight the fact that you are responsible. You can feel that responsibility because you choose to do things. So when God does orchestrate everything, he doesn't do it apart from the will of the person who's doing the thing he operates in and with, and through the wills of those who do it. What does that mean for us then? Means that the person who does it isn't saying, I have to do this. God is making me do it. The devil made me do it. No, you are a willing subject doing the will of the enemy, or even doing your own will, that's fallen and God is still orchestrating everything, but he's not doing it apart from your willingness to accomplish those things. A lot of times those in our theological camp. Will be accused of being the puppets on a string. If not the robots, you're just a marionette. And my response has always been, maybe that's what it is. And yet I don't feel the strings, I'm not consciously aware of the strings on a daily basis. And so from my perspective, as I'm living out my reality, I'm making these decisions in these choices. Now my theology informs me that those are decisions and choices ordained by God, but we, there's no autopilot button that we push in the morning to get up and just go about our lives. And we are responsible for those choices in the end. And those choices are going to produce results that ultimately in the end are gonna run, redo to the glory of God even in a situation like this. That's right. With that, let's turn and cover judges 13, 14, and 15. This is a familiar stretch of the book of Judges and so we've been going for a little while here. Thanks for bearing with us. I think it's important for us to address these things, and this is one of the reasons why we record this fresh. Every year. And don't just cam these because we want to be able to address things like this when they come up so that we can real time think together on, man, how do we process these things? How do we navigate what's going on in life? Because I get one shot a week. Pastor Rod, you get one shot a week with the students and then once a month with the men. That's right. This allows us to, to have a shot every single day with you guys to help you think about what's going on and how to navigate things from a pastoral perspective. Yep. Judges 13. You've got Sampson. Samson shows up. The Philistines are oppressing Israel this time as a result of Israel's continued rebellion, as is the common refrain throughout the book. And God appears to Samson's parents as the angel of the Lord. So here it is again the incarnate second member of the Trinity. And the angel of the Lord tells them of Samson's impending birth and the expectation that he should be a nazarite from the womb until his death. So that meant there, there were gonna be things that he could and couldn't do. One of the things he was gonna be prohibited from doing is cutting his hair. That's gonna obviously factor into Samson's life later on. So chapter 13, the birth of Samson Sampson comes on the scene. His parents are told about him. He's gonna be a Nazarite. Chapter 14, Sampson. The story is now focusing on his adult life. He takes a wife from the Philistines, and this is so fascinating to me because that's an act of disobedience, right? Because God prohibited the Israelites. We, okay, let's talk about this from a biblical perspective. We were just talking about. Man's actions, responsibility and God's sovereignty. Because the text says that he did this, which we know was a, against the law of God because Moses commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with the people of the land. And yet God, the text also says that God ordained it to be so that he might enact justice and vengeance on the Philistines. And so God is using this act of disobedience from Samson as a means to bring. J. Justice and punishment against the Philistines, which is one of those brain pretzels again. Yeah. Verse four says, it was from the Lord. His mom. Mom and dad didn't know it was from the Lord, that these things are taking place. And that's an important feature because scripture unashamedly says God is in. It's see sovereignly in control of everything. Yeah, it does. They're not blushing. They're not saying, oh, this might not make sense to, they just. They just assert this, like this is just the fact of the matter and I appreciate that. Yeah. And that kind of clarity is helpful as we think through the implications of good and evil. Clearly whoever's writing judges, Samuel, perhaps is not struggling with the fact that God's in control. They just assert, they assert it as a matter of fact. And certainly that's the way that you and I should feel about it. God is sovereignty in control. There's nothing that could be outside of his control. If he's God, yeah, it would be impossible for him to not have control. So how we put those pieces together often are hard brain pretzel, as you say. But I don't know that God expects us to necessarily understand how he intimately involved himself in human creation. I think we're just expected to trust him as we do for most things. Yeah. Yeah. The plot thickens here because on his way Samson kills a lion, and then he passes by the lion again. There's some bees making honey in the lion carcass, which is, that's weird. Super gross. But then that inspires this riddle. And so Samson goes and tells the Philistines this riddle, and he's Hey, what's, where can you get something sweet of something that would normally kill you? And they don't know. And so they go to his wife and this is gonna be a common refrain in, in Samson's life. Samson doesn't make the best choices when it comes to women. Let's just put it that way. Yeah, I know. It's crazy. And they find out the answer. And then one of my, one of my chuckle moments in scripture comes in verse 18 when he says, if you had not plowed with my heifer. You would not have found out my riddle. I love that he calls his wife a heifer. Clearly he didn't love her that much. Clearly not unless heifers were well-regarded. Yeah, maybe, or maybe he's just saying If you hadn't used my wife, maybe that's the implication. Either way it's not the best it's not the best connection there that Samson makes husbands hear are wisdom. Don't call your wife a heifer. Don't call your wife a heifer. That's a general rule of thumb. Maybe not. It's a bad move. So here's a question then. Yeah. Samson violates his nazarite vow by taking honey out of a carcass. Why doesn't God leave him at this point? And that's a great question. I don't know, other than the fact that God wasn't done with him from his perspective of what he wanted to do. Yeah. 'cause it seems like Samson goes out of his way to violate every opportunity to break his Nazareth vow. And yet, in his mind. At the very last thing, the last vestige of that vow Yeah. Is his hair. And for some reason it seems like scripture would affirm that, why God doesn't take it away during these other occasions when he uses the jawbone of a donkey. That's another carcass, yeah. He's breaking it all over. It seems like in the period of the judges, at least for Samson, God was merciful. Because he had a plan to fulfill with him, as you're saying, and that's the reason why it, it wasn't considered fully broken and why God remained with him in his strength, which also suggest with which also suggests that the nature of his strength was not physical. No. Wasn't that he had big muscles, or that his tendons were in the right spot. It was the fact that he was spiritually endowed with supernatural power. Yeah. Yeah. And I think again, we've mentioned about the judges were not the most morally upstanding group of people. It's not like these were the cream of the crop. These were, say it again. Yeah. These may have been, more sense of omission versus this cutting the hairs, the high handed sin, because Samson knows that. Intentionally that this is gonna be a breaking of the vow. But this is the one that he doesn't do though, right? Like these other ones are, he's the one doing it. Oh, the hair, you could say he wasn't directly responsible. It happened to him as a result of his Yeah. Relationships. Yeah. And I think it ultimately we fall back on verse four that you read and that is that, that this was from the Lord. He was setting all of this up to get to the point. Of chapter 15, right? And in chapter 15, he takes Delilah and Delilah becomes his wife. And the the Philistines are like, Hey let's let's get him. And so they, I just shake my head at Samson every single time and go, dude what were you thinking? And she goes to him multiple times and is Hey, what's the source of your strength? And he, every time he you would think that he would be like, maybe I shouldn't say something to you anymore. Maybe I shouldn't be with you anymore. He seemed to try to kill me every time I tell you. Here's the thing here's the thing. I noticed this time reading it that I hadn't noticed before. And maybe you've seen this since the very beginning. It hit me like a ton. Bricks, probably. Probably. I have. Of course you have. Of course you've seen it out. You've seen it all. You've seen this thing backward and forward Every time that she says, Hey, what's a secret? And he tells her it says that she has men in hiding or waiting to jump on that. Yeah. But when she says, Samson, the Philistines are upon you, we don't know that they actually show up. Like they could stay hiding. So it seems like maybe she's testing him every time, and maybe they're waiting for her to give them the thumbs up to say Yes. He's really actually unable to move, and so maybe they stay in the house until whatever happens and he leaves or what have you. But I think they don't actually show up until his hair actually is cut off and he's actually weak and she begins to taunt him or whatever that means. So I don't know that they actually show up. So maybe he's just oh, she's just playing a fool. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Which and it is probably important that we stop right now and talk about the fact that we're talking about chapter 16, which is tomorrow's reading. Oof. And that's on me what happens in 15, chapter 15 totally got scan is he gets Delilah, he catches 300 foxes and he burns down the Philistines crops. So that's what happens. That's why they're upset with him, and that's why they're coming after Delilah. Delilah to get to, and that we will talk more about that tomorrow. But that's chapter 15, three. River Fox Giving Taste. Yeah, we're just, yeah. So there you go. We're keeping it real. Y'all we're keeping it real. Yikes. Okay. D Donkey Jawbone. Yeah. Thousand men. Yeah. Carcass breaks. That breaks the vow again. Yeah. Yeah. And now the Philistines are really mad and Delilah is gonna be. Not a good person. I wonder what's gonna happen. I have no idea. Tune in tomorrow to find out. Lemme pray for you. God, we think you that you are sovereign and we certainly do pray for the Metcalf family, especially right now. God, we just pray for if they're are believers of yours, that, that they would be comforted Lord, that you would surround them with other Christians that would be able to comfort them and remind them of a piece that transcends understanding. I cannot fathom father of. Another piece that would suffice. In fact, there is no other piece that would suffice right now in the midst of the heartache and the suffering and the questions and the mourning and the sorrow and the anger and the, all of it. God, I just pray that you would especially be with that family right now. God I pray for, just their church, if they are involved in a church to be faithful to them, to remind them of truth and to keep pointing them back to Christ and back to you. And God, I just pray that you'd preserve them, especially their kids. God, I pray that you would just either save their kids through this process or hold on. Tight to them through this process, God, as they re wrestle with losing their sibling and all of this, God, just the heartache I pray for the community these schools that were involved in this. God, we just ask that you would show yourself to be truly God in the midst of this and a source of hope and comfort in an otherwise senseless and hopeless and horrific situation. And God, we trust that good will come out of this and we ask that would be evident to all. Before too long, and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Keep your new Bible, see y'all and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. See ya. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said