Hey everybody. Welcome to a very minimal, easy, non controversial episode of the day. This is going to be so straight fire, straight. No, just like straight, like no bumps, just like straight plane. It's no, I thought you were contradicting me. And so you were like, no, we're going to fight in this one. Oh no, we're not fighting. That's good. I'm going to be throwing logs your way for you to fire with play with. That's great. But nothing on my side. I am here to help host. From a co pilot trajectory. It's see, here's the thing. I'm host when it benefits what I want to do. Yeah. Yeah. Any other time that it doesn't, I'm co host. Okay. That's how this works. Okay. Okay. Yeah, those are the rules. I don't know if I signed up for that. I don't think I did. You can negotiate it in our contract. We've got a lot of episodes in the can. I don't know what episode this is, but this is 300. Going on year three of doing this for us. Two and a half. It's funny that, because we've been using this new software for, I don't know how long now this thing called Descript. Yeah. So we have not only the episodes, but we have most of the transcripts for it. So we could like control F and see, Hey, when did we last talk about that one thing? So I've been Using it lately. And it's been cool to see something cause I was using it for my sermons. And I'm like, Oh, did I talk about that yet? So I control F and I found like, Oh yeah, I guess I did talk about it, but not the way I want to talk about it now. So I'm going to use that illustration. Yeah. Really helpful. That is helpful. I try to make a note because that, yeah, it's so easy as pastors to reuse illustrations just because you go back to the well and it's like, Oh, okay. I've already said that a couple of times. Or you think, okay, when did I say that in this series? Was that another series? Where did I preach this? Descript. It's all there. All your transcripts, even cross references. Sometimes I'll be like, okay, I've gone to that cross reference too many times. Like it makes my point really well in this, but I feel like I've hit that one so many times recently. I need to find a different one. That's what makes our job so fun and so challenging because on the one hand, faithfulness is not doing anything new. As people often say, if it's new, it ain't true. If it's true, it ain't new. And that's, and that is true. On the other hand, how you say certain things and how you communicate them can be fresh and novel without saying something fundamentally different from what you've said before. Even as you're saying the cross references, our job is difficult in that regard. We have to be fresh and new without saying anything brand new. Yeah. That's a challenge. It is very much so a challenge. Yeah. Speaking of challenging, let's jump into numbers five and six. There's nothing challenging here. Nothing challenging at all. Numbers five is about the cleansing of the people of God. And this is, God is saying, this is how I want you to purify the camp and what I want that to look like. And so verses one through four dealing with skin disease again, which is always a fun subject to talk about this person was to put outside, be put outside the camp. And that was not only for the ceremonial elements, but that was also just practical. They didn't want this to spread in this nomadic group of people because it would decimate the people of Israel. If all of a sudden, everybody in Israel got leprosy because they didn't put the person outside the camp, that's practically a bad thing. And they were gonna be purged by being put outside the camp. Is this leprosy as we know it today? Probably body parts falling off skin, all those things. It doesn't seem to be that way because it, I think it was earlier in, or in Leviticus when it's talking about this, it talks about the person that is completely white from the disease or the leprosy is head to toe. Yeah. And then that person is now clean and allowed to come back into society. That would imply that it's a different form of leprosy than what we know today. And that's where most I think scholars land. This is not leprosy as we know it today. 2025. We have medical definitions and Specific things in mind when we say that the bible uses this as a catch all term to describe skin conditions Yep, which one of the only places you can get leprosy today is from an armadillo dude. Praise god. Let's get rid of those armadillos It's nail beds. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've heard such that they can carry the disease. Wow So If you see an armadillo. If you see an armadillo, don't pick him up. Don't pick him up. Don't cuddle with him. Yep. Don't name him Charlie, and give him to your kids. That'd be weird. Yeah, just run 'em over because that's what you do in Texas. I don't know. You'd run 'em over though. Oh yeah. You don't like animal cruelty and pain. Don't I don't like animal cruelty and pain, contrary to you. I love it. It's my favorite thing. So it is an interesting question. We were just talking about this recently about animal suffering. We'll get to that at some point when it makes sense, but that is something to put a pin in because I would like to talk about that. It's true. We don't have many armadillos, lots of Bobcats. I've not seen one in person. Dude, the ring app, you need ring. I've not seen one in person. Okay. I've heard, yes, my neighbors report sightings and I heard your wife saw one recently at a women's gathering. Yeah. It was on her back fence in her backyard. I don't know. I. I don't know. It could have been someone else's cat. It doesn't have to be a bobcat. It, I, it had the pointy ears. I think everybody would, there was. Could have been what, a neighbor kid dressed up as a bobcat? I don't know. We don't know that. I don't know. Every time I see Jacob though, I'm like, I want to post on ranked bobcat sighting. Because he goes to Celina. Yeah, that's funny. You should do that. Yeah. Yeah, people are hilarious about that. They're like, yeah, now that everybody's mocking them on that. But the ring app is worth it's got some yucks, the neighbor section on it. And you just go there and scroll it for a little while. It's like, okay, people, the other day we're all in a panic because I guess there was a fire down at PGA at the golf course down there. Yeah. So that, that everybody's like, why are all the fire engines going down to PGA? People are coming up with extreme ideas. Like they found a terrorist in there. That's what it is. Yeah. Terrorists in Texas. Where are we? We're in numbers. Leprosy is a generic term to refer to all kinds of skin conditions. That's all I wanted to say. All right. And they're put outside the camp Hebrews 13, by the way, Christ is crucified outside the camp. And there's a intentionality there by the writer of Hebrews saying that he was willing to go outside the camp for us. But. We'll get there in Hebrew. All right. Numbers five, five, three, 10. Restitution. This is if you have offended somebody, if you've sinned against them, then you are to confess that you were to offer the sacrifice appropriate for that. And then you were to pay them back and add 20 percent on top of that. And so there was a, this was meant to deter them because it was serious. You didn't want to have somebody to treat that flippantly and say the consequence isn't that bad. All I've got to do is confess and then bring the sacrifice. It's like, no, it's going to cost you. You've got to add a 20%. Fee on top of that in, in repaying them for that. And so there's restitution that's again part of the purification And now the bread and butter of the chapter verses 11 through 31 the test for adultery. Why does god hate women? That's the first question Obviously, I do not believe that, but this really, for a modern reader, you read this section and you say what about the gal and what, why is her thigh falling off? What's all this talk about? How do we read this in 2025 respecting its originating culture and also applying it however we can apply it to today's issues? So I found. It's, let me get the title of the resource, right? Hop on pop the Zondervan internet illustrated Bible background commentary. Zondervan illustrated Bible background commentary. That's a good resource of having. You should have that. Yeah. They've got an Old Testament edition and a New Testament edition. They've got it on Logos. They went into talking about this and in one of the points they made, I thought was super helpful is this, that the woman suspected of adultery, she was going to be examined in these rules and regulations, but the one she was going to be examined by was the Lord. Not humanity. And so this is not the whim of men saying, we think you're guilty. And so thus we're going to, we're going to punish you as we see fit. Rather, she is going to be brought before the Lord and the Lord is going to be the one that is going to ultimately rule. Yes or no on this. And that's why it's set up this way in what appears almost a little bit mystical as far as this, you're going to drink this and if it causes, it's going to cause your womb to swell your thigh to fall away, which is probably talking about sterility or lack of fertility at that point. And yet I think that The silver lining in something that seems rather, we're going to throw labels out there in our culture, like this is patriarchal and this is abusive and this is masochistic and everything else like that. I think this is God saying, listen, I'm going to be the one that's going to weigh this out. In the end, I'm not going to leave it in the hands of a jealous husband, or I'm not going to leave it in the hands of a group of men that are going to decide one way or the other. So in some ways, I think there's a, an act of mercy towards the woman that she's her fate is not in the hands of her accuser, nor is it in the hands of a human judge, but it is ultimately in the hands of God. That's a great take. Yeah. God vindicates her or finds her out and exposes her sin. And part of what's unique about this is that the guy, if there is an adulterer male is not in view. This is, we don't know. We don't have any information on that. If we did. Both would be put to death, right? That's the way it's supposed to work here. We have a husband who has suspicions and he gives him a recourse to deal with it. Now, another follow up question that someone might have is then what about her rights in this? Does she have any way to accuse her husband if she thinks that he's committed adultery? And the short answer is no. There's nothing here about that. She doesn't have a way to say, Hey, I want you to drink this dirt mix here from the ground. And I want you to confess or this or that. Why do you think that might be the case? Is there any. Any biblical wisdom or insight that you could provide that would help us to navigate why Again 2025 eyes looking at this and from an ancient perspective and saying how do these guys think about this? Why does she not have these things? Yeah, that's a tough That's a tough one because there's not really an answer that makes everybody feel warm and fuzzy and good inside at the end of the day sure, And this doesn't mean that the guy was not accountable for his actions. This does not mean that the guy was not called to be faithful to his wife. This does not mean that God has condoning extramarital affairs for the man, but not for the woman. As you already mentioned, if this is something where they're caught together, then this is an offense that they're going to be stoned to death. Yeah. In fact, the, even the message Mesopotamian culture, the code of Hammurabi taught the same thing that, that the male and female were going to be bound together and thrown in a river and drowned for the sin of adultery. So that tells us that there was a weightiness to the act of adultery, That pervaded the culture that nobody was sitting here saying this is an okay thing for the man to do but the woman You don't have a right in this The thing that makes us uncomfortable is does the woman have a recourse to go and accuse her husband of being unfaithful to her? And that's what's at the heart of this not whether or not god's condoning this But what can she do and the answer is we don't have any clear teaching of this in the bible That says this is what the woman's allowed to do, right? But I do think we have other examples. Let me point to the example of for instance hannah So Hannah was married to was it it wasn't Eli. Hannah was married to Anyways, Samuel's mom she was married and yet childless at the time. And we see that Hannah was wrestling over that state of being barren and she went before the Lord and she pleaded with the Lord over her circumstances and the Lord responded directly to her, answered her prayers and provided her with Samuel. And then later on, provided her with more children down the road after she dedicated Samuel to the Lord. So in that. Instance, I think that what we can draw from that is God does care about these women. God does care about the ladies that are present in Israel. And I think if we see him respond to Hannah in that way, if there was a woman in Israel at this time, who was watching her husband go out and do things with others and be unfaithful to her. If she was to plead before the Lord, the way that Hannah did. I think we can see the character of God being true to that woman in that instance, as he was to Hannah, even though we don't have that specifically as a case study in the Old Testament for us. Yeah. I would only caution adding to this, that we're looking at this and to keep on emphasizing this because I think it's so important. We're reading this from 2025 eyes or Westerners. We have a very different understanding of equality, equity. We have a different understanding of male, female gender. There's arguments, even the day within the church, there's in house discussions about how male female relationships are supposed to work. And again, we're looking at this from 2025 with all of our baggage saying this is the way that God should have done this. If I were God, I would have said this and that. Why didn't God do this? Why didn't God do that? And I get that. I have some of those same questions. As you just said here, there's not an easy answer to this that we could say it makes perfect sense. God did this and this now. And again, I just need you to feel the fact that you're reading this. With a different set of eyes than the modern or not the modern the original audience would have received it for them They would have said oh, yeah makes perfect sense The lord knows what he's doing and I just want you to feel the sense of saying i'm not going to understand God's ways perfectly as I look from 2025 and i'm looking here about 14. What see 1445 thereabouts because that's when they were That's when they left exodus or left egypt rather through the exodus There's a lot of distance between us Give God the upper hand, give God the benefit of the doubt and say, okay, there's just things I don't understand about this. And maybe I'll have a better answer for this in the next year or so, as I continue to study the Bible, but just be patient with the fact that you're not going to understand everything about how this culture operated. And that's okay. Lemuel, that was his name. Okay. Really? I thought you were right with Eli. That's why we should read our Bible every year. The details that you should know, we'll hopefully remember. Now I'm confused what you were saying is true. Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to that just flashed into my mind there for a second. No, yeah, totally. It's hard for us not to read through our modern day eyes, but we do need to understand that and understand things have changed drastically. It is appropriate to read the Bible through modern day eyes after you do the work of saying, what did it mean to them? Okay. You have to start with it. When we do that, the TAN method, T A N, then always now, we always ask, what did it mean to the original audience then? After you do that groundwork, then you could say what does it, what are the enduring principles that are always applicable? And then how do I apply that now there's work that needs to be done. If you were to just take this a day and say I'm just going to take this and apply this in 2025, you're going to have issues because you're not doing the groundwork of saying, what did it mean to that culture at that time? Yes. So what are the takeaways? If we could derive any from this? Just that God cares about the purity of marriage. I think that's front and center. Foremost for us. I think God does care about the sanctity of the marriage relationship and we'll look at the old testament and say Look, this king had multiple wives and this man had multiple wives and so clearly god was okay with polygamy and polyamory And yet here we see this example, and clearly he's not. So his silence in some areas or his lack of action, as it may appear in some areas does not mean that he's condoning things. He cares about the marriage relationship between a man and a wife. And we see that as a key takeaway here in this passage. And I think, let me just offer one small thing here. I think it's appropriate to be jealous over your spouse, not in a negative evil sense, but to have a right jealousy for the purity of your marriage. If you see some. Person flirting with your spouse, you're not going to just hit their passively and say Hey, I guess that's a good sign that they're still attractive. No, I'm jealous for my spouse. They're not mine in a technical sense, but this is my marriage. This is my spouse. It's good to have a healthy, godly. Let me emphasize that godly jealousy over your spouse. So we need more duels. So we're saying more duels. Let's bring it back. Yeah. 10 paces turn and fire. Elana. That was the one that was way off. Eli was close. Yeah, but not Leal. That's a le writer of Proverbs I don't even know where I was. Le that, listen Abe, I know you had the email going already to me. so it's okay. It's Elana. Elana, that's right. Yeah. Elana was, that's why I was like, Eli feels right. It's Eli was the priest. I knew that, yeah, I knew Eli was the priest at the time, but I could not get to Elna. Anyways, that's number seven, five, number seven, six number seven, six. We deal with the Nazarites in the Nazarite vow. The Nazarites were a group of people that had taken a vow, usually a voluntary vow a consecration of themselves to the service of God. Usually for a set period of time, they would say, I'm going to vow myself to the Lord in service of this, for this amount of time, a couple of Nazarites that we know from the Bible, Samson and Samuel were both set apart by their parents to be lifelong Nazarites. So that wasn't just a period of time. That was. Forever. We think that maybe that was the vow that Paul had taken when he has to shave his head. John the Baptist lifelong. Yep. Nazir. Yep. So this is something that is, is not just here in the book of numbers but pervades through scripture as well. And yeah, go ahead. I was going to ask, so we come back to valves again. This is a, this is an interesting thing because you dedicate yourself to the Lord for a certain period of time. Is this, what role did this play in Israel's history? And does it have any application to us today? And let me answer the second part first. I think a modern day equivalent might be. Fasting might be saying, Hey, you know what? I'm going to seek the Lord's will in this area of my life for a period of time. So I'm going to fast from this, maybe Texas Twinkies for two months. There you go. Unless Dan invites us to lunch. And if that's the case, and I'll suspend the fast and I'll do it over again, because there is place for that. We're going to shave your head to go back to step too far. So maybe it's fasting because that's what this was about. And I think that to go back to the first question, this was meant to, Set someone aside for a purpose. And again, maybe that was a period of time, or maybe that was as in the case with Samuel and Samson, their entire life, they were to be set apart by their parents to serve the Lord in these external elements of the Nazarite vow, be it not drinking or, growing your hair out or whatever it may be. It wasn't there was nothing magical in and of that in and so when you think to the story of Samson by the for example The strength was in his hair because the hair represented his obedience to the Lord It wasn't that there was something mystical and magical about the guy's long hair when his hair got cut It was an act of disobedience. It was an act of a lack of faithfulness to the Lord. And that's why the Lord was no longer with him in the sense of his strength at that point. And that's why he suffered there. So this is about worshiping God. This is an expression of devotion to God. And it was for a period of time to serve to accomplish something, to seek the Lord's will in something. Or maybe to repay a blessing that God had provided for a person, maybe God had done something and spared their life. And so they said, as a result of you sparing my life, God, I'm going to go and commit myself into your service for this period of time as a Nazirite. And so I think again, today, our modern example would probably be the closest thing I could think of would be fasting. That's a good call. I like that. And I think this is really neat too. These guys had a really special place and these gals, it's not just for guys. I think this is also applicable to the ladies. I don't ever read of a gal being a Nazarite. Nevertheless, this is really sweet because they're like the priest in so many ways. They don't have the same privileges as the priest, but they're set apart in very similar ways. And I think it's really sweet that God gives them an opportunity to do this. It's a way to say, I love you, Lord. Here's what my life is. I want you to take it, use it, and use it as you see fit. I think, in one sense, the Nazirite vow is no longer applicable because we're all dedicated to the Lord. We all belong to Him fully, completely, from A to Z, the beginning of our life to the very end. So the Nazirite vow, in some ways, is, I don't know, no longer necessary. All of you belong to all of Christ, and therefore, you should operate as a Nazirite, even though you don't have The same Nazarite privileges or the vows that you make or the hair situation. You're you belong to the Lord. So this is great I love it. But now we have something better in Christ totally Yep. Numbers six, 22 through 27 is the conclusion here of chapter six, and this is the Aaronic blessing. This is what God is instructing Aaron to pronounce over the people, over the whole nation, not just the priests and the Levites and the Nazarites, but over the whole nation. These are the words that are familiar to us, may his face shine upon us. In fact, there's a silver scroll in or a, it's actually not silver, I take that back. I think it's actually written on stone. But it's it's in the Jerusalem museum and it contains this, and it's one of the oldest examples of scripture, scriptural writing that we have in our possession. And so it goes all the way back here. I think they traced it all the way to, I want to say around 700 BC. And it, Is part of the Aaronic blessing is on that scroll. So cool, really cool that God commands Aaron to bless the people. Yep. I love that. That's the God's heart right there. God cares about his people and he wants to bless them. I think that's helpful for us as Christians. I think about the fact that we ought to be blessing our families and our friends and just speaking truth over them like this and the Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. It doesn't have to be that, but I think that's just God's heart. He wants to bless his people. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Y'all will. Hey, let's wrap up this episode with prayer and then we'll be done with this. Tuesday's edition of the daily Bible podcast. Let me pray. God we thank you for just the reminder in the passage today before us that you are God and we are not. And we are bound by time. You are transcendent of time and your ways are perfect and right in accordance with how you reveal them and how you unfold them given the certain context and dispensation and season and time. So God, we want wisdom and we want humility as we approach the scriptures to not sit in judgment because of our cultural influences and understandings. But we also thank you that what we see here is that you love marriage and that you care about the purity of the relationship between a husband and wife. And so God help us to appreciate that element as well. And to fight for that, we want to be a church of pure marriages and marriages that you were going to use for the good of your kingdom. And so we ask that and pray for that in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. All right, y'all keep reading your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. See you folks. Bye

Hey, thanks for joining us for another episode of the daily Bible podcast. We hope and pray this has been a blessing to you and your time in the word. If it has, if you would subscribe to this podcast, leave a like, leave a comment and share it with some friends and family. That would be awesome. If you need more information about Compass Bible Church here in North Texas, you can go to compassntx. org. Again, that's compassntx. org. And we'll be back with you tomorrow for another episode of the daily Bible podcast.