Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible podcast. Happy Tuesday folks. Happy Tuesday. Hey, I've got a question for you. This was not submitted formally to the podcast, but it actually came through in a text right before we hit record, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw it at you. Somebody was in the area and we've got some different restaurants that serve different kinds of Middle Eastern food and things like that, and they went to go buy food from one restaurant that is halal. And they found out before they went to go buy the food that the people there we assume are Muslims, because that's what Halal is. It's the Islamic form of something being kosher, that they pray over the food before they prepare it and serve it. That's fascinating. And so the question is. As Christians, should we eat that food? Should we be purveyors of that restaurant? Should we, is there anything about the prayer that's been offered over that food that should cause us to say, no, I, I don't wanna do that. That is incredibly interesting. I'm surprised that I've not encountered that yet. But of course I'm not usually going to restaurants that have anything like that. I'm not usually eating that kind of food, not my genre. And when I go to Mexican restaurants, they don't tell me if they have Catholic friends that are praying over it or not. So I never ask those questions. I do have thoughts and I think scripture has like almost a hand in glove of response to this. What are you thinking about it? It's real life. Yeah. I, this is a matter of conscience, I think at the end of the day. Yeah the Christian, if it. If it offends your conscience, if it's, if it wounds your conscience to eat that food because you feel as though you are now eating food that somebody has offered, or you're not sure what they prayed over it, or you're wondering if you're participating in the act of worship of this false God as you eat that food then abstain. Don't eat the food. And that's what Paul says when he talks about this very issue, he says about meat. That's offered in to gods before it's sold in the marketplace. Bingo. He says, Hey, if it offends you to eat that food, or if you've got a conscience that is sensitive to that, don't eat. But if you're gonna eat freely because there's no God but God. And so really that prayer that was offered over that food, Paul would say, is meaningless because the God Allah that the Muslims serve. And this is a totally different conversation, but is it a Unitarian God? Because they deny the trinity and so they're praying to a God who's not God, even though they would claim that praying to a demon. It's the God of the Old Testament. Yeah. Okay. We would say, yeah, they're praying to a demon. Yeah. So you're free to eat that food. You're free to go to that restaurant unless it offends your conscience. And if you're, it, if offends your conscience and you still eat, then it becomes sin to you because you can't do it in faith. You are going against something that God has given us to be discerning people, and that is our conscience. And we need to be careful about that. We just can't take our conscience and turn our conscience into a law for everybody else. So I think in this instance, it's up to you. If it offends you, if it bothers you, don't eat. If it doesn't bother you, hey, eat, enjoy, and give glory to God for the food that you're eating. Amen to that brother. That's a good word. I would simply point out that the conscience is an interesting instrument that God has given us by the very fact that Paul says, if it offends your conscience, don't do it. But if your conscience is okay with it, then enjoy and eat freely tells me that the conscience has to be trained. Yes. Has to be attuned to the right parameters. And that is an ongoing process for some of you. You have a conscience issue about drinking or smoking or things like that where scripture has been silent about some of these bigger cultural issues that we've really wrestled with. My point is your conscience needs to be calibrated, and the only way to do that is through the word of God. You need the Bible to influence the way that you think and the way that you theologically reason. About how you go about life, and so it's great that you're doing this because this is the whole practice. All of us are going through the process of training our consciences to respond in the right way. When things like this happen where there's not a clear command from scripture, that's really how the conscience is supposed to function. It gives us a check to say, maybe wait, don't do this, or Is there something wrong with this? Or it gives us no condemnation to say. Do that thing freely, enjoy it to the glory of God. And so in so far as you're able to do that and there's nothing in scripture that violates that, then that's usually a good sign. On the other hand, there are times when your conscience will raise a flag over something that you think is wrong because you've been culturally trained to think that thing is wrong. When in reality scripture says nothing about it. In fact, it gives freedom. And again, alcohol is probably the easiest one to talk about, even though there are real issues there. Alcoholism. Forbidden. No drunkenness alcohol, God's gift. It's there for from him. Obviously he gave it to us, right? But you can't obviously abuse that and that's where you get into the realm of sin. So all that to say, your conscience has to be trained and that's a really good thing and a really good reason to be in scripture. 'cause it helps with that whole process. Yep. Yep. So good. Good question. Sent in by the Oscar. I won't call him out because he didn't. Submit this for the podcast. He just texted me to say, Hey, I it pastor about this. But it was Pastor Mark. How did you know? Yeah. I could just tell I heard they're going halal. Yeah. They're not the food's delicious though, man. It's, it is very similar to what some of the food that you eat over in Israel and so when I've never been. Have you been there before? I have. Oh, and it's delicious. Interesting. The food is great. Except that you can't eat cheese and meat together. It's not kosher because the whole, don't boil a goat in its mother's milk. That whole situation I'm going to break the law. So even at night, they don't give you, they don't give you creamer except for non-dairy creamer. And so people that like cream in their coffee. I am, I don't drink cream in my coffee. Yeah. But I would. Just to exercise my freedom Hey, let's see what I'm doing. There's powder. No, you can't find it like you. The restaurants don't have it. I would put the coffee mate in my luggage. The travel coffee mate would come with me in my pocket in its own holster. If it survived that trip, it wouldn't be dairy Creamer. That's true. Yeah. So I think you'd be okay still. I don't think coffee mates dairy even close. I don't think there's any milk that's ever seen the inside of a coffee mate. Anyways, let's jump into our daily Bible reading today 'cause we got a whale of a section again from Isaiah 49 through 53. My goal is not to rip out any Bible paint just today. Don't rip anything. Alright. But talk to us 'cause you alluded to this, that there's a new section that we're entering into here. So talk to us about that, that new section, right? So you're looking at roughly chapters 49 through 57. And the reason that we know that is because Isaiah cues us. He uses repetition, he uses bookmark phrases. Like when you're on a bookshelf, you have those two end caps to keep the book standing. There's a literary technique that does the same thing. And so if you just look back in your chapter, 48, 22, Isaiah says, there is no peace, says the Lord, Yahweh, for the wicked. That's the end of chapter 48, verse 22, and if you skip over to chapter 57. Verse 21. It's the very last verse in chapter 57. It says, there is no peace, says, my God, for the wicked. So same phrase, slightly worded differently, but that tells us Isaiah's trying to create a section here for us to help us understand something. And so what's he trying to help us understand? I think this section focuses primarily on the suffering servant and it really culminates in chapter 53. That's really the high point of it. Of this section, but the whole thing really is about Jesus suffering, the suffering servant the individual, not the corporate one. And so that's gonna be one of the things that we're gonna see. And the way that you experience the peace of God is by being right under this suffering servant's wake. He's the one who's gonna lead the way. You get right with God through the suffering servant, and that's how you get peace. There's righteousness and there's peace. If you're not under that righteous banner, there is no peace for the wicked. Super helpful. And if you're sitting there going, how am I supposed to know that this is bookended? How should I know? This is where good study Bibles come into play, this is where Yeah. Commentary will come into play. Totally. You don't have to read this and naturally be able to be like, oh look, this book ends. 'cause I can call back to, eight chapters ago and see that this is there. Anyways chapter 49, we get in here and he's talking about the servant, and you alluded, this is the suffering servant, the individual, and yet in verse three it says, you are my servant Israel and whom I will be glorified. And so what do we do with that other than we have to, to again, continue to look through the context. And the context is clearly talking about an individual here. And so there is a way in which we can see this reference to Israel still is reference to Jesus or the Messiah. In some ways, some have pointed out that Jesus fulfills everything that Israel failed to fulfill in his representation of what God desired, but. This is the Messiah. This is the servant that is, we know now today as Jesus, and even in verse four, it alludes to his first coming in a little bit of a unique way. He said, I have labored in vain. I've spent my strength for nothing in vanity yet surely my right is with the Lord. My re pences with my God. We have to be careful not to see this as him being complaining or angry or bitter in this. I think this is just simply a statement of fact that at his first coming, as John talked about in the opening of his gospel in John chapter one, he came to his own Israel, but his own did not receive him. This is setting up the suffering nature of what's going to be here. And it's an allusion to the initial, the first advent of Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, because he spends his strength and yet the people don't receive him there, not the way that they will receive him in the future when he's the millennial king. Reigning over the kingdom there. Yeah. Speaking of millennial kingdom, we see that beginning in verse eight of chapter 49 as he's going to deliver the people, he's going to provide salvation to the people. Look down in verse 10. They shall not hunger or thirst. Neither shall scorching wind or sun strike them. For he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. Psalm 23 should come to mind there as the Lord being the good shepherd, the one that is going to lead us beside still waters. That ultimate reality for Israel is going to be in the future. During the millennial kingdom, he's gonna gather the nations. And that's a common theme in the millennial kingdom. He's calling the Israelites from all of these different nations that they've gone to, including, and this is interesting the name SAE in verse 12 pr. Did you look into Sein at all? 'cause I hadn't noticed it and so I was reading it this last time. I did not People think that it's China. Which is fascinating. I and I think there's a lot more to the why behind that, but that's just another reminder. We're still dealing are the Chinese people, the ancestors of the Jews. Just kidding. They're not very good Jews if they are. That's true. Yeah. But it's possibly even China. Just a reminder of how broad and scattered the people would be under the hand of God's judgment and yet he was gonna bring them back. Verse 15, can a woman forget her nursing child? He says, maybe, but he says this at the end of verse 15, yet I will not forget you. And again, I just think that's another reminder of God's dispensational. Covenants and promises that he has to fulfill with Israel and with Israel alone. One of the things that's cool about this chapter is that God is making it evident by his servant. I'm sending you my servant. He's going to fulfill righteousness and eventually he's going to usher in the millennial kingdom that we just read about. Even though there's rejection here in his first coming, but one of the things that we can be confident of is that there will not be rejection. The second coming that he will establish his perfect righteousness. And in fact, just a couple chapters ago, we read in chapter, here we go, chapter 45 verse 23. To me, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear allegiance. Now, you talked about this and I forgot to bring this up. I meant to Jesus, who is coming as the suf suffering servant. Receives this passage Paul applies it to Jesus in Philippians chapter two. But if you notice in chapter 45, this is about Yahweh. This is about Yahweh, the capital LORD, and so applying to Jesus again, we see more hints in the book of Isaiah. That this suffering servant, this coming Messiah is more than a man. He is God in the flesh. I think that's really cool, and I love this chapter because it shows that this is, this guy is being introduced, this mysterious figure who is more he represents true and better Israel. He's Israel, perfected Israel 2.0, and that's how they're going to be saved because of this guy who did not fail, where they did fail. I love this. Yeah. Yeah. In chapter 50 God is going to confront Israel and say, Hey, why have you not yet turned to me? And that's the opening here. And he says, Hey, where's the certificate of divorce? You're telling me I've divorced You show it. Let's see the certificate. And then he says is my arm too short to save? In other words, I'm here. I can deliver you. And yes, Isaiah is delivering that to the people, again, way before exile. But that is gonna be true during the exile. God is gonna say, why have you not? Yet turned to me yet and repented like you should have the servant, the suffering servant is the ultimate example of this confidence in the Lord despite the suffering that he would endure. He knows verse nine, that he has no guilt. He knows verse seven, that the Lord is going to help him. And so he's resolute in his mission. And so Jesus is going to do what Israel would fail to do. And that's why in verse six he can say, I gave my back to those who strike my cheeks, to those who pull out the beard. I hi up my face from disgrace and spitting. Why? Because of his great confidence in God's able ability to deliver and that he didn't distrust that or view the suffering that he was going through as though God had abandoned him. He knew better than that. Yeah. Fascinating that. He'll say, who? Who can declare me guilty. Because if he's a man, you should be able to say, oh I've got my list. Jesus, come over here. Let me tell you. And yet, because he's more than a man. Again, we see hints here. It's not as explicit as we might like, but if you're reading it carefully, Isaiah's pretty explicit. Yeah. He's not hiding it. He's saying, here, look, this person who comes. In fact, it's weird because in my ESB Bible here, there's not a heading in verse four that says, now the suffering servant is speaking, and yet we know that's the case. There's a shift where verses one through three is Yahweh. He's the one who's speaking, but verses four and onward, it's him. It's the suffering servant who is now speaking the Lord. God has given me the tongue of those who are taught. And remember, Jesus possesses wisdom. He shuts the mouth of his adversaries. They don't know how to respond to him. 'cause he says who's, how does he have such learning? They say about him Who's gonna hold him guilty? Imagine if someone were to say that to you. Show me where I'm guilty. Show me where I've sinned. I don't think it'd be very hard for you to say I've got a couple things I could point out to you. You were impatient here and you broke the law when you were speeding at 65 on the 40, whatever it is. And Jesus could say, show me where I'm guilty, and people will say, I don't have anything. Yeah, that's jaw dropping. Yeah. It is. It's amazing. It's amazing. One really cool illusion I think is here in 50 se chapter 50 verse seven, where it says, therefore the Lord God helps me or, but the Lord God helps me. Therefore I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to flame the flame. Shame. Thanks. Or the flame. Or the flame. Yeah. But Luke nine, verse 51 says that Jesus set his face, Mike Flint, to go to Jerusalem. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's great. That's a great connection. Illusion back to, I think that's a good, that's a good one. Yeah. Did you look that up in the logs thing? Is that in there? That's good. I didn't, I just, I grabbed it. I saw it. I like in your head, huh? Because that phrase has always stuck out to me. That resolve when it says he set his face to go I'm going. I'm not gonna be moved. And so that's a good cross reference folks. That's why you pay for this podcast. Cross references like that. That makes it worth it. Hey, but bad news, we're gonna start triple charging you for this podcast. So what you're paying right now, you're gonna have to pay triple starting. Yeah, sometimes it happens. Inflation hits us all guys, and in arrears for all the episodes you listened to. Yeah, that's coming. Chapter 51, I think helps us understand the mindset of the Jewish people today and also the disciples during Jesus' Day and the disciples that were on the road to Emmaus 'cause chapter 51. This is all about the glorious reign of the Messiah in the future. It's focused on his power and it exhorts the people not to fear oppressors any longer. It talks about the ransom being reinstalled in Zion with everlasting joy in singing. And so when you read a chapter like this and you go, okay, this is talking about the Lord's servant, this is talking about the Messiah. And then when you see Jesus be the Jesus of Isaiah 53, or the Jesus who's giving his back to the, those that are whipping it, or in. They're pulling the hair out of his beard. It doesn't add up. And so I think chapters like Isaiah 51 help us understand the expectation that Jews initially had for Jesus at his first coming was really what we're gonna see from Jesus at his second coming. Yeah. So you could understand some of their confusion too. When he came, they were expecting a man who puts us all together in one compressed timeframe. And often scripture has a multiple fulfillment kind of pattern where sometimes you're just unsure is this the completion? And you don't know until really the end of history when God makes it clear. Okay. That was it. I've wrapped it all up, and sometimes you'll see multiple layers of fulfillment, which is why when Jesus reads in the temple, he only reads a portion of Isaiah, and then he says, this has now been fulfilled in your hearing, and we're gonna hear the rest of it later on. We'll see the true fulfillment of all of it at another time. So I'm with, that's really helpful. Insightful observation. Yeah. And that continues even into chapter 52. The first part of it, at least continues this depiction of God's future deliverance of Israel and the, this glorious reign during the millennial kingdom. Verse seven, how beautiful on the, upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, brings a good news of happiness and publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. The Lord has beared his holy arm before the eyes of all nations, and the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. This is why the disciples were saying. Let's go, let's set up the kingdom. This is great. And even after the resurrection in Acts chapter one, this is why the disciples are now thinking, okay. Okay, but surely now is the time. And that's why they go to Jesus and say, are you gonna set up the kingdom? Now? Is now the fulfillment of Isaiah 51 and 52? Is this it? And he says, no it's not yet. It's not yet. But then 52 shifts beginning in verse 13 to talk about the first advent. And so from 52 13 down through chapter 53, this is about the suffering servant, and this is the chapter that's so often read during Easter around Good Friday. This is the one that it's even left out in some synagogue readings today because of how the Forbidden chapter, what'd you say? It's the Forbidden chapter. The Forbidden chapter. Because it's so explicitly clear that this is, speaking of what Jesus does, anyone in human history fit this chapter? Yeah. Who could it be? Who could it be? Who could it be? But just, some of the things that come through here I think, that are important for us are the key doctrines. Some things like substitutionary atonement I, that's all throughout this, which means that Jesus took our place on the cross, bore our sins and satisfied God's wrath against our sins. Because the greatest deliverance that was needed was not freedom from Assyria or Babylon, but the redemption from sins. And that's what Israel needed. That's what we need. And for that. Redemption to be accomplished. It had to come first by the suffering servant who died in our place so that in the future we can enjoy the benefits of his reign. Yeah. Penal Substitutionary Atonement is the technical name of the theory of atonement that we hold to now, don't get tripped up. When I say the word theory, I use that only because other people have suggestions about how God ransom to our souls and made us right with him. We would look at his Isaiah 53 as one of the critical chapters to understand the nature of Jesus sacrifice on the cross. What did it represent? What did it do? And in verse five, it says He was pierced for what reason? For our transgressions. We would see his piercing not as just. God pouring out his wrath in a general sense, but he was pierced for our transgressions. And this is why we use the terminology of Jesus was nailed on the cross for us. He was crucified on our behalf. He was suffering under the wrath of God for you and for me. And when we say that, we're saying he's. Being penalized, penal, substitutionary atonement. He's being penalized as our substitute to atone for our sin. Surely he has born our griefs. He's carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, and upon him was the chastisement or the punishment that brought us peace. It is his work on the cross absorbing the wrath of God that makes us right with God. Penal, substitutionary atonement, critical to understand, hugely evident in Isaiah 53. Yeah. Also I read 52 verse 10. It says, the Lord has beared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations. Now look at verse 50. Chapter 53 verse one, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And again, perhaps a callback there to what he just said about the arm of the Lord being Baird. And this reminds us the way that it was gonna be bair was not the way that they expected it to be bair, but it was gonna be barred through what you're talking about here the penal substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. That's the strength in the weakness, right? That's the strength in the apparent. The, in the victory, in the apparent defeat is the beauty of the cross. And and something that I've always loved is verse 11, outta the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge, shall the righteous one my servant, make many to be a counter righteous the anguish of his soul. He shall see and be satisfied. And part of that satisfaction is gonna come because he's gonna make many. Righteous, he's gonna bear their iniquities. So if you go to Hebrews, when the writer of Hebrews says that for the joy set before him, he endured the cross part of the joy set before Jesus was his knowledge that by what he was doing, he was going to redeem you and me from our sins. That his sacrifice in the anguish of his soul, he looked forward to the fact that this was for the accomplishment of the redemption of so many who would put their faith in him as their Lord and Savior. That's a pretty cool thought. About about the redemption that we have in Christ. Man, this chapter is Rich. We could talk a lot about this one 'cause this just gets us excited. You there. There's more than what I just quoted in verse five. In fact, what you just quoted, he makes many to be accounted, righteous, right? That's what we call justification. Someone is made right in God's sight while actually not being righteous. This is the beauty of salvation. We're made righteous in his sight because of what Jesus has done. This is such a precious chapter. We hope that you spend some time with it. Yeah, spend some time with it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll wrap there. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for that, that reality that he came as the suffering servant first so that we can have this understanding that, that our sins that we've committed, that is, that are ours, that we're guilty of that he took them, even as Paul is gonna write about in Second Corinthians chapter five. He took our sins and gave us his righteousness. And that great exchange takes place because of this chapter, because of Isaiah 53, because of your plan, because it was the will of you. To put him to death, to crush him and to put him to grief. That is a reality that we'll spend eternity just grateful for and grateful for because it is the gateway. It's the doors the linchpin to our faith that will enable us to one day be in your presence because of Jesus' sacrifice for us. So thank you so much for that. God, we pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Keep in your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye folks. Bye.

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