Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast and I am back. You are back. But I'm also back. So is Pastor Mark. Pastor Mark's back. I'm back. Pastor pj, if you're new with us. And you jumped in sometime while I was outta the office. And you're going, who is this guy? My name is Pastor pj. I'm the lead pastor. Here comes Bible church. I'm normally on this podcast, but I was out for vacation, so it was a good time away. But thankful for you and Louis jumping in and covering the podcast. Yeah. We're glad to do it. It was fun to do with him. We hadn't done it before, so we were, you know, I didn't think chemistry was gonna be bad. Yeah. But I think it, worked out pretty good. Worked out. I listened to every episode. That's good. Yeah. That's good. And apparently you don't, like, Christoph is what I learned from this. It's not that I don't like them, I'm just more skeptical of them. You're just more skeptical. Yeah. I'm skeptical of. Of Christoph. So I was laughing with Amanda and my wife when the very first episode. The pastors are away. The cats are gonna play. Right? Very first episode outta the gate. Pastor Mark comes out with, I'm gonna disagree with Pastor Rod and Pastor pj. I know right away just like, Hey, I know I don't agree with those guys. Oh, they're wrong. And here's my take on things. I know. I'm sorry. You. No, it's okay. You know what, it, this is not a tier one issue, so we can have our disagreements, we can be okay with that. But no, glad that you were able to jump in with Lewis. You guys did a great job. Yeah. And if you guys, we didn't do a great job of introducing ourselves. We tried. So if you didn't know who we were for the last few days, you. It was Pastor Mark and Director Lewis. Yep. Yep. So Pastor Mark oversees our kids, men here as well as he is involved in he's got his hands on a lot of things. He's taught in men's Bible study before. He helps us with a lot on our background stuff, social media, marketing, things like that. And there's some other things that are on the stove top back burner right now that are being developed and being cooked up. So, and then Lewis oversees our student ministry, true North. And so we're thankful to have, godly men able to step in. In fact, that, that was the feedback that I got from a lot of different people saying, Hey, we're, it's a joy to know that there's other men that are godly leaders of our church that are able to step in and and do things like this. So I was happy because I thought to myself, man, I can not be here more and you guys can do this so well. It's good to be able to get real breaks. We need real rest. No, for sure. And it's important to be able to trust the Lord ultimately as we rest. But also he gives. He gives gifts to us and hopefully we were a gift to you and allowing you to truly rest. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. Well, hey, let's jump into our text for today. We're in the Old Testament in Genesis 33 through 35, and then we've got the New Testament. We're gonna be in Matthew chapter 11. I'm right on that, right, that you are right. A hundred percent a plus. It's been a while, so I'm just getting my feedback under here. Alright, Jack. Chapter 33. You guys set it up well yesterday. And that is the situation where Esau was getting ready to encounter Jacob or Jacob to encounter Esau. One thing I don't remember hearing you guys talk about, but and I guess it's because it's really dealt with here at the very beginning of chapter 33, but you see jacob's love for Rachel showed even more so here. And not just Rachel, but also Joseph in here. Mm-hmm. Because he is not going to lead with Rachel. He's gonna put Rachel behind. Leah. He's gonna put Leah. Now granted, he still keeps Leah. Towards the back with him. Yes. But he definitely, his favoritism shows up again here in chapter 33. It does. It does. And we saw that a little bit earlier when he responded in initial fear separating everybody. But Jacob is wise and is shrewd. Is he right to show favoritism? Certainly not. But he does demonstrate some characteristics here even if some of them are misapplied and it is interesting. It's interesting, man. Is he right that this is so hard because. We have to go all the way back to his marriage to Leah first and then his marriage to Rachel. And we have to ask the question, should he have pursued Rachel still? And that's so hard because he was deceived. The deceiver was deceived from Laben. I know I'm going back, but that was 'cause I wasn't here. I didn't get to talk about all this. That's all right. You're allowed to but. Rachel was the one he loved from the very beginning. And I, man, and it's interesting 'cause Leah's the chosen one because it's the line of Leah that ends up producing Messiah. That's right. Well, and even God sees the disdain for Leah. Yeah. And opens her womb. Yeah. And keeps Rachel's closed. Yeah. At least for a season. Yeah. I would just say I don't fault Jacob. Because Rachel was the one that Jacob loved. He was the one that, from the very outset, he agreed with Labban to say, this is the one I want to marry. This is the one who in whom my heart delights. And he was deceived into taking on Leah as well. Now, God loved Leah, and Leah was shown that favor in that sense. And even the honor that we still show Leah now because we know that yeah, hers was the line that produced the Messiah. 'cause Judah would come from Leah. But, yeah I understand where Jacob's coming from, I guess. Yeah. And I think one of the things we have to do is look at how, in this case, Moses presents the character of Jacob. Yeah. At least in chapter 33. And this is not to say we should ignore sin or make sins light, make light of sin. But in chapter 33, right. Even as he, he shows continued favor, favoritism towards Rachel and towards Leah, the emphasis of what he's saying and doing here as Moses demonstrates is what we see. See in like a verse, like verse five, where Jacob says these are the children whom God has graciously given your servant. That's a statement of faith. That's a statement of trust. That's a little bit new for Jacob as we've been talking about, or even in verse 11, right? He's talking about, because God has dealt graciously with me and because I have enough, I think we need to see those, the sin in there. We need to see the messiness of sin, but I think we also need to look at how the. Characters are presented and I think that's the highlight of chapter 33. Yeah, for sure. It's interesting here, there's other things running in the background. Esau's response is not what Jacob expected, right? It's not what we expect and we're meant to feel like, oh, wow. And Esau says, come and live with me in Sear and just a historical note, kind of a thumbtack to put in here. Sr becomes the capital city of Edem, and the mites are the descendants of Esau and the Ed mites are gonna be a thorn in the side of Israel for a long time. Even prophetically they're talked about in the future as resuming, right? That role of being a thorn in the side of Israel. So, yeah, Esau, Edem, seer, all of this, the Edomites. Think of all these things together. Do you think there's some lingering deception here that. Esau says, come join me. Jacob says, yeah, you go on ahead of me. And then Jacob totally bails and goes somewhere else. I think there's a little bit, but again, this is where I struggle to say, you know, is he necessarily wrong to do that? Is he wrong to lie? Yes. Lying is definitively a sin, but there is. The way this is presented is Jacob is he used his shrewdness in this. I don't think we get all the insight into all the details of what's going on here, but at least the way I read it. It reads favorably in my interpretation of Jacob. I don't know if I have more to say on it than that though. 'cause it is still a little bit, it's still a little bit unclear to me. Yeah, because he does say in verse 14, until I come to the place of my Lord in Sr. So he does tell him. He does agree to go with him. And then he sets this up to say, well, you go on because I'm gonna go slower. And then he doesn't go there. So I, yeah, I don't know. It's not the end of the world, but I just wonder if there's a little bit of that there. And it is definitely the highlight of chapter 33, like you said earlier, because the rest of chapter 33 into chapter 34 is anything but a highlight. Yeah. And this has devastating consequences, not just for the immediate. Situation, but also for these two tribes. Mm-hmm. S Levi and their future here because of what takes place here because one of Jacob's daughters, Dina, is going to be taken of advantage of, and we will say that to keep things pg and it's far worse than that. I don't mean to sugarcoat what happens to her. It's an atrocity. And Jacob finds out about it. And this is where I think there's so often, and we're gonna see this in the life of David later on too where these dads are passive instead of. Do, doing what they needed to do to defend the dignity, the honor of their daughter. And I think if Jacob had been more strong in response to what took place here instead of being as passive as he was, I don't think what Simeon and Levi end up doing ever takes place. I think what we need to note here is this. Shechem and those involved in this activity, they deserved punishment. They deserved to die. The tragedy in all of this, the sin in all of this, and what leads to the condemnation of Levi and Simeon is that they extended this on, not just to Shechem and those that were involved, directly involved, but to. All the males herein. Right. And in that sense, they were guilty of, as the text, I think even puts it shedding quote unquote innocent blood, innocent, not in the sense that they weren't sinners innocent in this matter. Justice was not due them, all of the males the way it was due to she them in his household. And so this is taking matters into their own hands and going too far. But I think there's a failure on Jacob's side here as well. I agree. I agree. And I think this is a little foretaste of problems that. The greater nation of Israel is going to continue to face, I think we're working right with the immediate family, but these sins, right. Even taking innocent blood even the, the issues with DIUP. To put it again pg. Right. Those are gonna be echoed again. Right. Even I'm thinking Hosea, right? Yep. And what Hosea the prophet says on behalf of God, that, and he's gonna condemn the people of God for acting in a similar manner. I think this is kind of a little bit of a foretaste of unfortunately, what is going to come in Israel's future in Israel, meaning the nation of Israel. Yeah. The. The actions, the leaders here again, are Simeon and Levi, and that doesn't absolve the rest of Jacob's sons because if you look in verse 27, it says, the sons of Jacob came upon the slain and plundered the city. And so, this is a familial affair. This is not just them, it's just I think the two of these are the leaders. They're the ones that are the heads of this. And that's why Jacob in verse 30 says to these two, Simeon and Levi, you have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land. And he's going to end up, we'll see later on in the book of Genesis when it comes time to bless. The people, he's not gonna bless. Seamen and Levi. Right? Chapter 35. Then we get into the renaming here and this has taken place once already and so we're gonna find it again. And it's kind of a reiteration here and a, a doubling down of the promises of God. The covenant is reconfirmed again with Jacob here. Yeah. Why do you think that is? Why is because if you read this just first and just without reading what had proceeded it. You would kind of be led to think this is the first time that this is clarified. Yeah. I'm not quite sure if I have an answer to that. Do you have any insight into why exactly this appears here? Again, kind of repeating itself, I think Chapter 35 is a pivot chapter in. The story of J of Genesis because in chapter 35 you've got the death of Deborah, who was the nurse there. So that was a matriarchal figure in a sense in Jacob's life you've got Rebecca dying and so you've got that end of that period of Jacob's life. Benjamin is born here and so there's almost a completion there of the tribes of Israel now, and then you've got the death of Isaac. And so there's really, it's. Transitional chapter here. And so I think the, this is taking place because God is reaffirming, okay, I'm doing something new now. It's not gonna be so much about the promise being passed from patriarch to patriarch, but now it's a people. And so Jacob, you are Israel and from you are going to come all of these nations or the one nation, really the nation of Israel, but all of these tribes that are gonna be represented by the sons. And this is the pivot. Chapter that, that we see here with all of the death. And so I think that's why he's reaffirming the name. I think that makes perfect sense. And that's kind of consistent with something that Lewis and I talked about, which is that when you get to these genealogies, they are kind of big markers in Genesis and what follows this genealogies and descriptions of descendants. And so I think that makes, I think that makes sense. Yeah. Sort of acts as like a summary Yeah. And a continuation, but a sort of a summary of what's happened and that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's jump over and hit our New Testament reading for today then we are in Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11. This is always a unique one for me because you've got so much from John the Baptist, like John in John's gospel. You've got John the Baptist standing there saying, behold the limb God, who takes away the sins of the world and we think so highly of John and rightly so, even based on something that Jesus says in chapter 11, still, John the Baptist is going to be in prison and I think John. Just like the other disciples misunderstood the type of Messiah that Jesus was coming to be. And so he's in jail waiting for Jesus to ride in on his war seeded and start knocking Roman heads together and take his place on the throne and restore Israel to his glory. And he writes, he sends to Jesus to say, Hey what are you? What are you doing? Is, are you the Messiah or are you not the Messiah? I've kind of given my life literally for this whole thing, and I'm sitting here, it's time to go. Let's do this. And Jesus responds and says, go back and tell 'em what you see. And this is illusions back to the Old Testament prophecies about what the Messiah would do. But Jesus is at the same time gonna make sure that we don't think poorly of John for this 'cause. He's gonna say, Hey, think about John. What did you go out to see? You went out to see a broken read, a messenger. What did you go out to see? And then he goes and makes this statement and says, there's none born of women who's greater than John himself accepting clearly. But then he says that amazing statement that the person that's the least in the kingdom is gonna be greater than John even is gonna be. Right, right. Yeah. And I think this is a helpful reminder too that, that John the Baptist is a prophet and he's a man. And you know, the Old Testament prophets at times struggled with things like this too. Obviously they weren't coming face to face with Jesus, but they that point struggled with with what God was doing and why he was doing it. The most classic example is Jonah. But there's other ones too, who, they need God's help and their, his correction and his love to help them understand even though they're prophets and in this case, the greatest prophet they still are humans who are in need of God's help. Yeah, for sure. It's fascinating. He says here. Of John the Baptist. He says, if you're willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. Now, I reference John's gospel because in John's gospel the Jews come to John the Baptist and they say, are you the Messiah? And he says, no. And then they say, well, then are you Elijah? And he says no. And yet Jesus says he is Elijah. Yeah. And this is an interesting situation where you've got John and Jesus both saying something different, and I think what this points to is the humility of John the Baptist. I think John the Baptist wasn't about to take on a title for himself. Mm-hmm. That he wasn't absolutely sure was his to take. And I think this is what you have Jesus saying in effect, you know, he is the fulfillment of this prophecy from Malachi. That was, that John the Baptist would proceed or that. Elijah would proceed. The coming of the Messiah, Jesus is saying this has been fulfilled and this has been fulfilled in John the Baptist. So John the Baptist and his humility was not about to say I'm the guy, but Jesus is now saying he was. He was in fact the model of, or at this time is still, 'cause he's not dead yet. I'm not dead yet. Yeah. He is at this point, he's the fulfillment of this prophecy that Elijah was gonna come first. That's right. That's right. Yeah. And what an amazing thing that, that Jesus would call him Elijah. What an amazing thing. And that's gonna shock the people who are Yeah. Are listening. Yeah. Yeah. It from here he goes on and issues these. Statements of judgment, which are the statements of woe condemnation, damnation on these various cities. We've talked about it before on the podcast and in years past, but there are going to be different levels of punishment in hell. And we see evidence of that here. Because he says to these cities, woe to you. Because if the mighty works had been done in you or done entire inside, they would've repented. And then he's gonna go on and say of Capernaum, he's gonna say Woe to you. Because if the mighty work done to you had been done in Sodom, it would've remained. That's amazing. Jesus. Is his saying in effect that if the Sodomites had witnessed the things that he had done and heard the teachings that he had taught to the people of Capernaum, they would've repented and never faced the judgment that they faced. That's sobering. And what's amazing is if you go there today to Israel and you go to Capernaum on the gates of the city, it says Jesus town. And it's even a perpetual reminder today, and it's an indictment today that this was the hometown of Jesus during his earthly ministry, and yet they missed it. They, and it is a reminder that proximity to Christ is not enough. You have to have saving faith. So just because you've grown up in the church your whole life, you've gone to all of the Bible studies your whole life. You've been in Awana or Adventure Club or whatever, you went to student ministry, you went to a Christian college. That doesn't guarantee anything, right? If you don't have saving faith, and Jesus is condemnation of these towns as a reminder of that. Yeah. And can I suggest also just as a maybe a habit or a practice as you read your Bibles? I know we just read the, we just recently read the account of Sodom and Gomorrah, but let's say you're reading Matthew 11 it is worth going back when you see a name of a town like Sodom. Go back and read that account. Because Jesus is thinking of the account of Genesis. Of course, he knows exactly all the details, but he's thinking of the account in Genesis, and I think it can help you understand how serious Jesus is about this. And I think it's a good way to read our Bibles, is when you see some of these things like the city of Sodom. Mentioned, just go back and read that few paragraphs, few sentences even. Really, it's a pretty short account, and I think that'll help you understand how devastating this condemnation is from Jesus. Yeah, and if you come across something like Tire and Seiden, those are mentioned a lot of different places. There's not one event necessarily like Sodom and Gomorrah, but that's where using a resource, for example, like the logs Factbook. Yeah. Or like having something. On hand a, a study bible or commentary, you'll be able to read and go, oh, wait a minute. These were Phoenician cities. Okay. There, there's a history to them. There's a history with Israel in the past with them, and I have a frame of reference for what he's talking about here. Yeah. 'cause if you don't know any of these things, maybe it's just a person. Right. I think it's evident based on the woe to unrepentant cities that we see as the header there in, in the ESV. And even then in verse 20, he says, denounce the cities. But if you don't know. These places. That's okay. Do the work to understand them because this is a significant passage and understanding what these places are and what they represent does help you understand what Jesus is talking about here. So why does Jesus then follow this up, do you think? Pastor Mark, with this section, which contains your favorite descriptor of Jesus, which is that he is gentle and lowly. Do you think there's a connection here between what Jesus says in this condemnation of these cities? And then he proceeds to say, come to me all you who are heavy laden and weirded, and I will give you rest for I'm gentle and lowly. You have to read them together. I think you have to read them together because I think we need to know that Jesus is gentle and lowly, but he's not just soft and squishy in some sort of random, ambiguous way. That gentle and lowness of Jesus is contrasted and it is necessarily contrasted with the wrath and the judgment. Of God. And we see that in the passage preceding that. Right. I think we can think of God as some sort of spectrum. Right. On one end he's soft and squishy, and on the other end he's granite, he's wrathful and angry and bitter. That's you, that's where I'm going with. Got it. And Jesus. And God is somewhere, like, somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. Yeah. I don't think that's a helpful way of thinking about it. I think rather it's a both and thing, right? Yeah. It's a both. And where we see. That there is judgment coming to those who reject God. There's, we saw judgment in Sodom and Gomorrah, but he's also, and he's also the one who is gentle and lowly and gracious to those who he gives rest to. Yeah. It's not a spectrum, it's a both. And God is one thing and to put it simply. Yeah. And I think you're right on that. I reading. If all we had was 20 through 24 of this chapter, we'd think, wow, that's terrifying, man. I'm terrified. I'm frightened. And there's a measure of that we should have. Mm-hmm. But then God's so gracious and Jesus is so gracious to say, and yet there's rest with me. Mm-hmm. Just come to me. Mm-hmm. I'm not asking you to work harder. I'm not asking you to do more. I'm not asking you to, like, if somebody's sitting there going, okay, so then how can I make sure that I'm not missing the boat? Come to me. Right. Come truly come to me in faith and I will give you rest. And I, you will find that I'm gentle and lowly and you're right. He is all of these things all at once. Why? Because God is immutable. Mm-hmm. Which is a word that means he's never changing. Also, God exists outside of time. So God is wrathful towards those who deserve his wrath right now and being merciful towards those who deserve his mercy right now. Which I guess is nobody, that's an oxymoron to deserve mercy. But he's merciful and wrathful at the same time. Mm-hmm. He's gentle and lowly and he's also powerful and just and holy at the same time. Yeah. And he's those things together and they don't contradict each other because he's a perfect God in that sense. So yeah. The term that theologians will use sometimes is simple, not in the sim, not in the sense that God is like basic or uncomplicated. Or unsophisticated. Right. But simple in the sense that he is, he's one and we are multiple things. And so God is kind to us to help us understand different attributes of him, but those attributes cannot be isolated from each other. Right? They have to be understood as a one God thing. Yep. Yep. Well, hey, let's pray and then we'll be done with this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast. God, thanks for your word. Thanks for an opportunity to jump back in. Grateful for Pastor Mark and Lewis. Filling in over the last week or so grateful for Pastor Mark continuing here as Pastor Rod is able to get some time away on vacation. We just pray that we would continue to read your word well and to read it curiously, that we would ask good questions of it, that we would turn to good resources to find answers. And we do praise you and thank you that though you are a God who is a God of justice in wrath, you are also a God who is. Revealed himself through Christ to be gentle and lowly and ready to welcome us to, to take on your burden, which is easy if we will come to you in faith. And so I pray that more and more would do that. I pray that all listening to this would've already done that Lord, and that we would follow you with our entire lives. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. See you all. Keep your Bibles. Tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Bye.

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