Hey everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Hello there. Thursday the 18th. Yeah. Hey, you've got a busy weekend coming up, don't you, pastor around? I do. Delightfully. So yeah, you've got double duty. You are preaching to our men on Saturday and to everybody on Sunday. That's right. What are you what are you gonna be talking to the men about? So we're kicking off a new series called Resolved. I'm picking, I don't know, maybe 12 different men in the Bible who exemplify the kind of resolve and. Tenacity that God commends and is especially helpful in this particular day and time. It wasn't planned in terms of, oh man, this big event that happened last week. It was more thinking about what one Peter, what some of the themes are in one Peter, and then how I could compliment that. Yeah. And so it just happened to be like, this is really the right thing for the right time, and I'm more convinced about that than I ever have been after some of the most recent events. But on top of that, after we go through that with the men on Saturday. Picking up where you left off this week from first Peter, and we're looking at verses 22 through chapter two, verse one, which is a whole section about loving the church. And so I'm excited about and the church as in the people of the church who make up the church collectively. And I'm really excited about both of these things. I'm passionate about being a man after God's own heart. I'm passionate about the church learning to grow up in love. This is what Paul says, is the mark of maturity. And this is what Peter says, I think is the hallmark of our Christianity. So these are both. Timely and necessary subjects and I'm really excited about preaching. That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah. And you're gonna be gone? I'm gonna be gone. You're going on vacation or Yes. The Bahamas, I think. Yeah. It's this all expensive paid vacation. As long as I preach three times on on Sunday or on Saturday and Sunday. Yeah, no, I'm gonna be out with our Sunday church preaching on Saturday night, and then they're Sunday. Sunday morning services too, alright. Is this your Song of Solomon series that you've been talking about? Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. We're playing shuffling pastors that, they're our singing pastor Mike Var. He's going out to Idaho, to our church plant out there to do their family weekend. And so I'm going there. And you're coming. Yeah. So it's let's move everybody around. And then David Rappi is covering for me for working. David. Yeah. David and the team. Appreciate those guys so much. Yeah. So who's covering for David? That's a great question. Yeah. I don't know, man. David, I don't know. Are you stepping up after that? I don't know. Yeah. So what are you preaching on then? I am actually taking the message I preached two weeks ago on family resemblance on our call to be holy as he is. Holy. Oh, cool. So yeah, looking forward to being up with with the people there. So you're preaching through chapter two verse one, and that's in part because that's the way I outlined it. Yes. That is entirely your fault, but I think it, I think, but I think it fits. It works. Yeah. I think it fits. I agree. And it's a good move. Maybe everybody doesn't realize. That the chapters and verses are not, Peter didn't write chapters and verses what? Yeah, I know. It's crazy. Those were, who did editorial decisions? Yeah. Those were added much later on. And some people joke that whoever did it must have done it on horseback. Yeah. Because there are situations where you look at, like this one and Peter, where it's like. That. Why did you break it there? That doesn't make sense. Yeah. Clearly this is still talking about relationships and so it fits with the preceding context, but that's why chapter two verse one yeah, you're allowed to mess with the verses and chapters. That's not an edit. That's not an inspired. Hey don't mess with this kind of a thing. They're helpful. I'm thankful for them. Otherwise, absolutely. It'd be so hard to do what we're doing right now. The daily Bible reading. Yeah. You couldn't break it down. If you're like, stop at this line and this page. My pages are different. Yeah. We would've done it eventually. Yeah. Someone just beat us to the punch. Yeah. Yeah. Speaking of daily Bible reading, let's jump in. Ezra four, five and six, and then I think our last Psalm, this is it. This is our last Psalm of the year. In fact, I didn't realize we're two weeks away from jumping into the New Testament. Praise God. That's amazing. Yeah, that's my one lament with this plan. Yes. Every time I come to it, I'm like, man, I just need more time in the New Testament. So I think for this next time. This next year, we're gonna do the same plan. I think that's the plan. Yep. We haven't changed it. We're gonna do the same plan again. So if you're planning on joining us, welcome back to the Club. We're gonna do this all over again. New podcast, though. We're not just gonna copy and paste for half fresh every day. Yeah. Baked fresh bread. But I think what I'm gonna do is a lot more systematic, tangible not tangible regular New Testament supplementation. Yeah. I just, I need more of it. Yeah. Yeah. In fact I know a lot of it was just you and the Lord but you spent a couple days recently recharging, resetting and spending some time, and you did some more time in the New Testament during that time. You said it was super refreshing for you. Man, I just, I plowed through just a lot. I just read a lot. Yeah, I read and I prayed and I journaled. That was really what I did. And through that simple process, this is not rocket science. I didn't make this up. Obviously, this is what God's people have been doing since the beginning of the creation of the church, and even before then God's people have been doing this. It was just so refreshing. Yeah. I just feel like my soul has locked into place and I feel clear minded, and not that all my problems are gone, I still have some of the same issues, but the clarity about how I see them and the sense of resilience and steadfastness that I feel like my soul has been calibrated, and now I'm able to say, all right. Let's do this. Let's go. Yeah. So spending more time in the word can be such a balm to your soul. You need it. We all need it. Maybe as much as you're in the Bible, you might think you're checking the box. Maybe you actually need more. Yeah. Because God often does great things through His word. His word is powerful and effective, and it will never not do what he intends. And sometimes we can just get so into the routine like, oh, I did the plan today. Check the box. I read Ezra, check the box. But maybe you need some more time with the Lord and the Word, and maybe a journal. And maybe that could be helpful to you as well. Yeah. Alright, Ezra four, five, and six. We are in Ezra four where we get some opposition. I, I mentioned yesterday. Good start, but then that start is going to end up petering out and here we see where that happens. So chapter four verse two. You get these people that approach Abel and the heads of the father's houses and they say to them, Hey, we wanna build with you. And it says, because we worship your God. Also, ever since the days that we've been resettled here by the king of Assyria, now this is the ancient. Precursor of the Samaritan people. The, these are the people. Remember when Assyria took out the northern kingdom? They repopulated the land and then because things weren't going well, they brought back some of the priests and some of the religious leaders that they had taken away. Some of the people of the north that they had taken away, the Jewish people, they brought them back into Samaria as well. And so these are the people that begin to spread out throughout the northern, former northern kingdom, the land of Samari, Samaria, and the Samaritans. So there's a vestige of. Worshiping Yahweh, and yet it's been watered down and compromised by the worship of these false gods and these pagan deities as well. So they come to Ezra or they come to z Zabel rather, and they say, we wanna build with you. Zabel says, thanks, but no thanks. We're good. They then become the thorn in the side and they work against the rebuilding process. Now, chapter four is really crazy to try to follow what's going on here because that. Takes place down through verse five. Then you get to verse six, and then it says there in the reign of Haus, Haus is Xerxes. So Haus, Xerxes, you gotta think Esther. Okay. So that's the timeframe we are. Are now no longer in the same ballpark that we just were. We have jumped way forward in time. We're now at 4 85 to 4 65. Remember I said that the temple was completed in five 15 bc So now we've jumped past the completion of the temple all the way down to 4 85. And then we're gonna talk about art exerts hes next, which he is gonna reign from 4 65 to 4 24. So there's this interim here and it's this. Somewhat puzzling parent parenthetical flash forward that Ezra gives here. And I think the reason why he does it is just to show the opposition that they were up against and to remind the people of this is the opposition that they were up against. And ultimately wasn't just gonna be about the temple, it was gonna last long after that into the rebuilding of the city walls and the establishment of Jerusalem again, which is really what this is mainly about. But then we come back in verse 24, and all of a sudden we're back where we left off in verse five, and it says that the bill. Of the temple came to a stop because of this opposition that took place back at the hands of these precursors of the Samaritans that came to Zabel and said, you can't do this. So chapter four is a bit of a mental pretzel to try to follow what's going on here with everything, and I would agree with you entirely. I think the reason he intersperses those fast forward and back again anecdotes is because he's trying to make a point that God's people have always suffered resistance whenever God's people try to do what God's people should do. So resistance is not a bug, it's a feature God designs our lives to receive. Resistance from the enemies whatever they are. And here, I guess I should make cl clarification here. We're not talking about people per se, although people often personify the enemy as Paul will later say, our battle's not really against flesh and blood. But against the powers, principalities. And help me with that last one. The powers. Principalities and spiritual forces. Spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Yeah, I'm gonna go with that. So all of that is really what's behind the powers that we see. And so here you should take heart if you're experiencing any resistance to follow Christ, to do the right thing, to love your neighbor, to discipline your kids, to go to church on a Sunday morning. You should recognize that resistance is part of the plan. God could say, I don't want you to experience any resistance. It's gonna be easy for you. Yeah, follow Christ. Your life's gonna be a hundred percent better. But he doesn't do that. This is the way it's always been, and you should always expect it to be this way until Jesus comes back. So a quick sidebar here. You brought up the, he's standing next to his desk now. Yeah. You brought up the the situation of of spiritual warfare and I did that context of the armor of God. JD Vance, our vice president, was recently on. Hosting the Charlie Kirk podcast. I heard about that. And at the end he, he was pretty strong and clear on a lot of things, but at the very end of it, he said, we need to put on the full armor of God because God wants us to fight for America, is basically what he said, which you would expect coming from a politician. Yep. But. What do we do with that? As Christians? How do we understand? We've often said we're not Israel 2.0. That's true. So we are not, we still say that a nationalistic but Vance being the vice president and I think he's, I'm pretty sure JD Vance is Catholic. I've heard such things. And his read was, we need to put on the armor of God and fight against the spiritual warfare that's taking place against America as Christians, how do we respond to that? Do we need to call that out and say, no, that's wrong. Should we say, okay, there's an element that we can apply there? Is there a middle ground there? I get really nervous when we start mixing realms in ways that suggest that the two realms aren't different and distinct. I went to a prayer vigil with my family on Sunday, and I was thankful to do it. I was thankful to go. I, it was a good experience, but maybe there were things said and maybe there were certain people who were at the podium saying things that, okay, we could quibble about that perhaps. It just feels like the church is best when she's in her lane. And the church's lane is largely not politics. Now, if you're in politics, and that's your role, that's her calling. Fantastic. Praise God, we need you. We want you out there. We need more of this. But that's not what the church is called to do. So when the church is to put on her spiritual armor. To fight spiritual warfare. It's for the souls of man. It's not necessarily for a democratic republic right now. We could say that's a benefit and that's a good thing, and we should verbalize and vote for things like that. We want this. This is largely a good thing for us, but this is not the word of God. In the same way that when Paul says in Ephesians six that we fight against these principalities and powers, that is the word of God, and we're really at the end of it. We're not just trying to get our guy in office. We're trying to get people. Pulled from the clutches of the enemy so that they no longer do his will, but they now do the will of the Lord. We're trying to help people go from death to life, and that's gonna be a whole different thing. So I'm not against it. I'm for voting the right way. Biblically speaking, I am for, praying for people and doing things like that. But man, I get really nervous about trying to mix these realms in ways that I don't think are most helpful. Now, if you're a Christian going into office, you're always gonna bring your Christian convictions. You can't not be a Christian in office because this is who you are. But the other way isn't necessarily the same thing. In other words, you can't say the church and the state are necessary necessarily hand in all things we're not. I agree with you. We can't make the Bible say. Today what it was never intended to say. At any point. We've gotta be careful not to hijack scripture and make it something that is, is a mascot for a Republican party or for the Democratic Party or anything else like that. So I would echo the same concerns there. At the end of the day, America is on the wrong side of God's story, and so is every other nation other than his own people, Israel. And that's not to say that we as the church are, are less than or worse than. And again that's a mis misunderstanding of our position as dispensationalist. Only that the, in the end, the nations are deceived by the enemy. The nations are deceived by the antichrist and there are those that are gonna be standing in opposition to Israel. So while we have our country, be thankful for it. Yes, we should be pursuing godliness. I'm with you. I think we need to bring our Christianity into the voting booth with us and vote in accordance to that. But I'm, I, I. Get uncomfortable with it too. Can we both say, I think we would both agree you should pray for the welfare of your nation. Yes. That's obvious. Yes. Fight for it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I'd be okay with my kids joining the military and fighting for our country. Yeah. I'm for that. Yep. I'm for protecting and defining and defending what we enjoy, the freedoms that we have. I'm all for that. I love the fact that we have servicemen and women who attend our church, who fight our battles for us. Yes. And different. Soils. I love that. I'm grateful for that. I guess my, I'm trying to be clear about my hesitation here. Christians don't fight for America, as in this is our first priority, our first path true. Our first priority and path is to honor Christ by making disciples. That's what Matthew 28 says. And so my commitment is first and foremost to Christ and making disciples. When I pledged allegiance to the flag on Sunday, I did think about this. I think, okay, I'm pledging allegiance to the flag, and I guess I could say, yeah, I pledge allegiance. I do, but my allegiance is not a first and foremost allegiance. It's a secondary allegiance to my. Prior AP Prioria allegiance to Christ and to his kingdom. So yes, I can fight for America, I can vote for America. I can say God bless America. Yes, I can pray for America, but man, my heart is for Christ and his church, and that's a multinational. Agency or a multinational organization. Yeah. She's beyond the borders of the American states. It, yeah, it, I guess as you were saying that, it reminded me of what Jesus said. If you don't hate your wife, if you don't hate your parents, if you don't hate your brothers and sisters, you're not worthy of being my disciple. It's not about the fact that we have to hate all of those people the way we think about hatred, but we have to love Jesus most. And if it comes down to, we have to choose between Christ and our family, Christ and. Our coworkers, Christ in our nation, we're gonna choose Christ a hundred percent of the time we're gonna choose Christ. Yeah. It doesn't mean that we can't love those other people at the same time, so long as loving them doesn't compete with our affections for Jesus. Okay, good. Glad we're clear on that. Done. Super clear. Awesome. Alright, as we chapter five then, as. They're gonna get back to building and we're gonna talk about Hi guy. We're gonna also talk about Zacharia coming up here. And hi Guy and Zacharia are mentioned by name here in chapter five, verse one. They're gonna be instrumental in God using their messaging to get the people back after the task at hand, which is to build the temple, to build up the structure. And so they're going to do just that. And that's really the first part of chapter five. They're getting back after the building. And then there's this letter from tat and I tat and I was the governor of the province beyond the river. There and tat I is gonna send this letter, and this letter is gonna include really the history that led to the Jews being there rebuilding under the permission and commission of King Cyrus. And basically this is gonna backfire because he's gonna say, Hey, can you really check to see if they're allowed to be here and doing this in the first place? And in chapter six, Darius the king is gonna do just that and find that yes, in indeed. Here's the documentation for this. They are allowed to be here. It was decreed that they should do this. In fact, you know what my. Orders that you not only leave them alone, but help them in every, any way that you possibly can to finish the work of the temple as well. And that just struck me that he makes a search and it says a scroll was found on which it was written a record in the first year of Cyrus. God is in the details of the documentation that's taking place. Political back rooms of these nations. He's even involved in what's being written down by kings and rulers and authorities and everything, because that's what's used here to show yeah, this is what God said should happen that they should be able to rebuild the temple, that this was the decree made. And yeah, make sure that they're able to do that and allow them to get that done. The rest of chapter six the temple's going to be finished and completed. Ezra six 14, art Xerxes is mentioned here, even though he ruled after these events, likely included because he would be helpful in the ultimate completion of the walls of the city. So this was looking beyond the completion of the temple here in and also to eventually the walls of the city. And he's citing the people that God used in bringing that about. But the rest of the chapter really is focused on the completion of the temple and the celebration that took place as the temple was finished. And this is huge. Your Bible doesn't have a lot of exclamation points and bolds and underlines and all those things, but this is a big deal. Yeah, this is one of those parts of your Bible. Maybe you wanna star it because this is huge. Now notice what's here. But notice what's not. Now, ask yourself. You've been reading your Bible, you've been paying attention. We read through Ezekiel something massive happened at the beginning of Ezekiel, and one of the things that's not happening here is something pretty significant. Can you figure out what it is? I'll give you a couple seconds. Go ahead. Okay. I only give you one second because we cut out the silences, so you got one second. The glory of God, you're missing the glory of God in dwelling the temple. That's a big deal, and I don't know exactly what to make of that, except to say that even though this is authorized of God, God disapprove of this, it's not gonna carry the same kind of heaviness or weightiness that it used to in, in prior iterations of God's relationship with Israel. Doesn't mean he is given up on them. It just means that this is. A different season for them. It's gonna be a hard day ahead. A hard day is in a hard period of time, so this is a big deal. Huge. That they established the temple. This is 70 years for some people, 5 86 to 5 16, 5 15. And the Passover celebrated. This is the first time they've done this in a whole long time, so this is another remarkable time for them. It's at least a good start, but they have a lot more time to go before they get to the real glory of the temple. Yeah. He not only allows it, he sends Haggai and Zachariah. To say, Hey, get back after this. You need to finish the temple. Oh, yeah. So it is puzzling because he doesn't inhabit the temple. What gives? Yeah, why doesn't he. I maybe you could argue it's better than the alternative, which is that there is no system of worship in place. There is no formalized place for them to continue to worship the way that he had prescribed that they should worship. And so the temple would continue to foreshadow the coming of Jesus and it would be effective because there would be faithful believers that would still exist into the intertestamental period and everything else. And so perhaps that's why. But yeah, you two evils, he's not gonna dwell there, that's for sure. Yeah. All right. Psalm 1 37. Then the final song is a Psalm of lament. Initially there they're depicting the exile verse four, how long shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? But the psalm is written during captivity, looking forward to the Lord, taking vengeance on Babylon. And so he's asking the Lord to remember not just against Babylon, but against the Edomites. He's, remember he's calling them to remember the Babylonians and what they've done and asking the Lord to judge them pretty significantly there, especially there in verse nine. What he prays about, what he wants God to do to the children even of the Babylonians there. Psalm 1 37 is definitely a lament and in purgatory at the same time. Yes. I forgot to ask a question. Yeah. This is not related to what we just read. This is, are we done with the today's reading? I think so, yeah. I have a follow up question. Okay. One of our most beautiful listener. One of the godliest women I know. Period. Okay. And someone that I highly value and respect and love and admire. Dude, you should marry her. I think I should. I think I should. I'd marry her again if I had the chance. She brought up a question and I gave her an answer, but I'd love to get your thoughts on this. Okay, so this refers back to Daniel chapter seven. Okay. We read this a few days ago. Okay. Daniel has he says, I looked in verse nine, Daniel seven, verse nine. Thrones replaced and the ancients of days took his seat. I think I know where you're going with this. Go ahead. How is, and so we understand the ancient of days being the father. Yeah. How does the father take his seat? How does he have a personage? Yeah. This is one that I'm, I struggle with too because John Ford got his spirit right. Bingo. Yeah, this one's difficult and except that I think it's within the realm of God's capabilities to take on a physical appearance as it were in his, in, in the revelations in these visions. Because the o the other thing too is this is a vision versus something where. Y you've got the angel of the Lord that appears right? You think back to Abraham when the angel of the Lord shows up with the two other people there, right? That's not a vision that's actually happening, right? That's a physical being in front of him. So this is a vision that Daniel is being given. So I guess in my mind, I would say God is allowing himself to be conceived of in this vision as a. As a physical being in order to convey what he's doing through the Sun O. Otherwise, I don't know how you convey the same thing of the son receiving the authority from. From the father in that. Yeah. We answered the same way. Yes. I highlighted verse 13, I saw the night visions. Yeah. So I said it's, I think this is all a vision and a vision. It's different than him actually seeing what's taking place. Yeah. And so I'm gonna say this is how God decided to represent himself as the ancient of days. And the same way that when Moses received the tablets on Sinai, God inscribed them with his finger. God doesn't have a finger. But he told Moses, or he depicted of Moses. I'm writing this with my own hand, as it were. So I would put that in that category. I don't think he has a physical body. He doesn't, according to scripture, John chapter four, he spirit. But I do think that's what's happening here. So there you go. Love, hope that's helpful. Let's pray. Then we'll be done with this episode. God, thanks for just the good news that, that the next time we are with you in your presence, that it will be the time that, that we get to see the glory of the Lord, even though the glory of the Lord didn't fill up that temple. The glory of the Lord today resides with us as the church through the spirit dwelling within us. But there's gonna be a time where we're gonna know and. Fullness, and that's gonna be just a, an amazing day, A day that we look forward to, even as we're talking about Daniel seven a day when that final kingdom is set up forever and ever. And we look forward to that and anticipate that with great joy. In the meantime, help us be found faithful as we study your word every single day, and try to live it out, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Keep in your Bibles tuning again tomorrow for another edition of the Daily Bible Podcast. Yeah, I'll come back now. You're here. Bye.

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Yeah. I would agree with everything that you said